


Tony Stark and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean

by antigrav_vector



Series: Marvels: A Magazine Presents [2]
Category: Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man - All Media Types, Iron Man Noir, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Noir, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Arguments, Bathtub Sex, Biting, Blow Jobs, Comic Book Science, Consentacles, Death Defying Feats, Dirty Talk, Double Penetration, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Sex, Empathy, Enthusiastic Consentacles, Fingerfucking, First Kiss, First Meetings, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Frottage, Hair Pulling, Hand Jobs, Hurt Tony, Interspecies, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, Kinky sex, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Magic, Magical Artifacts, Magical Creatures, Making Out, Marking, Mermen, Merperson Bucky Barnes, Merperson Steve Rogers, Mission Fic, Misunderstandings, Multiple Orgasms, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Outdoor Sex, POV Switches, Porn, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Post-Canon, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Romance, Smut, Soul Bond, Soul Sex, Spitroast, Tentacle Monster - Freeform, Tentacle Sex, Threesome, Tony Stark is Indiana Jones, Treasure Hunting, bossy Bucky Barnes, courting, emotion sharing, injuries, magical transformation, mer!steve, mythical creatures, octobucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-09-22 11:53:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 33,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9606533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigrav_vector/pseuds/antigrav_vector
Summary: Tony's finally properly settled into his relationship with Steve, and he's gotten together enough references to go after that artifact he's been researching for the past month. Hell, he's even getting used to having scales every so often. Things are going fairly well, even if the press has been hounding him more than usual lately and making him impatient to get back out of New York. By God, as much as he loves this city, it really does have its downsides.It doesn't take long to get the airship fueled up and ready to go, and then they're sailing off toward the Maldives, and all the adventure a man could want. The Pearl of the Indian Ocean awaits!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So. I know I said I wasn't going to write a sequel to the noir Holiday Exchange fic. Well, I've been bribed into it by certain parties -- YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. On the plus side that means there will at some point be art that I will link in the fic. Because I am apparently super easy to bribe with art.
> 
> I aim to update every few days, so keep an eye out for new chapters. ;)
> 
> This fic has been beta read by the lovely [amonae](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Amonae/pseuds/Amonae) and [dapperanachronism](http://archiveofourown.org/users/dapperanachronism/pseuds/dapperanachronism).
> 
> 10-Feb-17: Edited to add the art~~~ [LINKY LINKY](http://tonysvandyke.tumblr.com/post/157066484806/do-you-ever-wonder-but-what-if-bucky-barnes-was). Don't forget to heap lots of love and adoration on it!

"-- Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!"

The shout was accompanied by the blinding flash of the second guy's camera. Tony didn't flinch, but why the hell did they have to make those bulbs so bright? It was overkill, really.

"Sorry boys," he called, without bothering to pause, pushing open the mansion door and stepping through. "Another time."

He leaned against the closed door and breathed out slowly.

"Tony?" Steve was suddenly there, his hands landing on Tony's shoulders and sliding up to cup his skull.

The worry made Tony smile wanly, and he covered Steve's hands with his own, enjoying the feeling of warmth that went with the gesture. "I'm fine, Steve. Just tired of the reporters dogging my every footstep when I go outside."

It had been a month since they'd discovered Tony had developed scales. In the interim he'd gradually gotten more and more of them, and Steve had been quietly gleeful about that. Something about it seemed to reach deep into the core of his lover and reassure him. Tony found it a bit mystifying, really, but didn't question it. The bond between them continued to deepen, too. They couldn't actually share their thoughts, but they came damned close, sometimes, at least as far as Tony could tell. It was kind of maddening to feel like he understood words when all it was was the emotion that would have been behind them, had they been spoken.

They did have to be in physical contact, skin-on-skin, for it to be quite so clear, and they had to want the 'reading' as Steve called it. Tony had been amused by the term when he'd first heard it; it was apt, even in a technological and scientific sense. Tony was kind of glad that he didn't just have Steve in his head constantly. That seemed like it would be distracting in the extreme. He adored Steve, but there were some lines that didn't need to be crossed.

There was also the matter of the less intense sharing that seemed to continue unbroken throughout the days and nights. They were attuned to one another now, in ways he couldn't have imagined a year ago. Tony was still finding that part a bit distracting, what with the way he'd gotten inappropriately aroused by Steve's lust a number of times over their relationship. Pepper and Jarvis had rolled their eyes and ignored it. Rhodey had ribbed him for weeks the first time, and still made the occasional comment about it.

"Come on, Pepper and Jarvis are waiting in the kitchen." Steve pulled him back out of his thoughts with an amused huff and leaned in to drop a kiss on his forehead. It sent a shot of affection through Tony and warmed him, and had the side effect of making a bit more of the tension fall away and his smile more genuine. Steve really was the best thing that could possibly have happened to him, and Tony did his damnedest to make sure Steve knew it, too.

"Where's Rhodey?" Tony let Steve put a slightly possessive arm around his waist and steer him away from the front door and foyer.

He'd been researching a new artifact he wanted to go after. The war was starting to draw to a close, if his instincts were to be believed, and that meant it was a good time to start making the switch back away from objects of military importance -- read importance to HYDRA or the Germans -- and to things he could publish in _Marvels_ , again. This thing, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, sounded like the perfect balance between the two: something exotic enough that he could publish it easily, something he didn't want the Germans to get their hands on, and also not an object Fury had sent him after. It was also far simpler to publish, since that meant it was not classified five times over.

"Gone to check on the airship, according to Jarvis," Steve answered easily, having apparently anticipated the question. "He said something about long periods of storage not being good for aircraft."

"And he was right," Tony replied as they entered the kitchen and Steve pulled away to take his seat. "Pepper. Jarvis."

"Tony," Pepper caught his eye, "you're looking harried."

"Reporters were hounding me again. Nothing serious." Tony replied airily, waving away the concern as he sat down in the open chair next to his lover, absently noting that there was a mug of coffee waiting for him. "It's not like I got shot at or anything."

Steve gave him a look. "That's a possibility?"

Pepper snorted indelicately. "Tony has this inexplicable ability to turn any situation into a gunfight."

"Hey! That's not my fault! I can't just reach into my enemies' pockets to make sure they're not packing." Tony protested. "And, anyway, don't you want to know what I've found?"

"Well," Jarvis demanded, "tell us, then."

"Right." Tony took a deep breath and did his best to organise his thoughts. "The artifact is known as the 'Pearl of the Indian Ocean', and not very well known outside of southeast Asian literature. It took me a long time to get the right translations of the right books. Even then, it doesn't come up often, and is referred to as a jewel without parallel. A pearl the size of a man's fist."

Pepper raised an eyebrow at him. "Valuable even on its own. But there has to be more to it if you want to mount an expedition to find it."

Tony grinned broadly, feeling his excitement start to bleed over into Steve. "Well," he told Pepper, "there are a bunch of conflicting rumours, as with any artifact, but the general consensus is that its wielder can influence others' thoughts and even the physical environment around them. Other sources claim it can unlock some sort of mystical power in its wielder, some that it grants wishes, and then there are a few even crazier accounts that say it's sentient, and will take over whoever holds it in their hands, manipulating them, rather than the other way around."

The idea made Steve look like apprehension was starting to color the excitement he felt, but Tony was more focused on Pepper and Jarvis. Both of them were nodding like that was exactly what they'd been expecting to hear.

"Sounds like the perfect thing for _Marvels_ ' next title," Pepper told him.

Jarvis sighed. "The perfect thing to get him killed, you mean," he grumbled. "That kind of thing isn't going to stay a secret for long, even if we can get a hold of it without Tony getting himself hurt. And then we'll be targets for every petty thief and German spy in the history of both Wars."

That was a valid point, but Tony had never really shied away from that particular kind of danger in his life. "We already are, Jarvis, old bird," he pointed out. "Problem with being famous."

"So when do we start?" Pepper asked, her eyes bright.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right! So, starting here we're switching over to Steve's POV, until noted otherwise. There will be a few more chapters at the end from Tony's.

Tony seemed to light up when he was planning the expedition, and that was _distracting_. Steve tried to pay attention, but the details kept escaping him. 

They were going to attempt to find a pearl the size of a man's fist, and there would very likely be competition from other interested parties -- Tony's movements were the subject of quite a lot of interest, both at home, and from other players on the international stage, such as HYDRA -- but Tony looked like he was coming alive as he laid out his plan, and Steve couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight.

Tony had been looking more and more tired and worn lately; he'd done his best to dodge the people who followed him around hoping for gossip, but only partially succeeded. To see the change in him now was astonishing. Steve almost couldn't believe it.

The echoing emotions of exhilaration and glee coming from Tony and ricocheting off him were almost intoxicating, but they reminded Steve so strongly of his adventures with Bucky that he _ached_ at the memories. It hadn't been that long since he'd lost his best friend, and the pain was still a bit too present for him to want to broach the topic with Tony.

While he'd been lost in his thoughts, the discussion had ended. Steve blinked when the others stood almost in unison and followed suit.

"Come on, Steve," Tony grinned at him and hooked an arm around Steve's neck, half leading and half towing him out of the kitchen, "we need to get you outfitted properly."

In a whirlwind of activity, everything was organised and set in motion almost before Steve could properly come to grips with the fact that they were actually _going_ , and then they were aboard the airship, crossing the country. The feeling of being so high in the air was just as foreign now as it had been the first time, when Tony had carried him off to New York. It had taken him several hours to get past the sensation of altitude in the form of a lack of air pressure on his skin and the anxiety that had come with that.

Tony hadn't realised what was happening at first, but he'd cottoned on when Steve had hastily excused himself from their meal to hide in the bedroom Tony had pointed out to him earlier. They had ended up tangled together on the ridiculously soft bed, and Steve had eventually run out of nerves to fray. When he'd calmed down a little, Tony had given him the sappiest smile. Steve smiled a little at the memory. It had been sweet.

Of course, it had helped as much -- if not more -- that Tony had proceeded to pull the rest of the tension out of him by seducing him then and there, apparently not caring that his friends might hear them. The thought had made Steve a trifle uncomfortable, but it had quickly disappeared in the welter of emotion and sensation Tony had drawn out of him.

Refocusing on the present, Steve dared step out onto the small observation deck at the side of the airship's cabin. The air around them was clear and cool, as befitted a morning in early summer. The feeling of the wind on his face made him close his eyes. His hands found the railing and held to it tightly, lest he lose his sense of balance.

They were going to be refueling at Midway Island, and Tony had given him this warm speculative look when he'd said it. It had been the type of look that invited all kinds of fun mischief, and Steve had been powerless to resist it. Knew he probably always would be, when he saw it on Tony. The man was irresistible when he chose to be.

"There you are."

Steve couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips. He didn't bother opening his eyes.

Tony stepped over to wrap his arms around him, his hands coming to rest tangled together over Steve's belly, and Steve suddenly felt like he could leap into the air and soar. "Was wondering where you'd disappeared to," Tony told him, his chin all but tucked into the curve of Steve's neck and shoulder, his breath feathering over Steve's ear. "What's bothering you?"

Steve huffed, leaning into the contact and taking one hand off the railing to put it over Tony's. "Nothing. Just thinking."

"You feel sad."

"Never could hide much from you," Steve said on a quiet sigh. "I miss Bucky."

Steve could all but hear Tony mulling that over. "Bucky's your friend? The one you said vanished?"

Steve's throat seemed to close, and he nodded. He'd gotten that far in the story once, before he'd had to stop. Tony carefully kept silent. He probably could feel the rawness of the emotions thinking of Bucky called up.

They stood in silence for a minute that felt more like ten, and then Tony's lips came down on the side of Steve's neck. "Come on," he said, the warm, wet drag of lips and breath on skin making Steve damn sure he knew what was coming next, "let me distract you?"

They ended up back in Tony's bed, hands and lips wandering, and the heat building between them washed away everything else. Afterward, limp and gasping, Steve could only be thankful that he'd found this incredible -- infuriating -- perfect man. Once he had control over his arms back, he wrapped them firmly around Tony and refused to let go for a long time.

Tony gently pried him loose a couple of hours later, so he could go take his shift at the helm, and Steve followed, not quite willing to be parted from him. Yes, it was a bit clingy, but this whole trip was giving him a bad feeling of foreboding. He knew Tony did this kind of thing for a living. He knew that Tony was good at it. But some instinct was screaming at him that this was different somehow.

Of course, it couldn't be bothered to tell him anything helpful about exactly how or why this was different. Oh no. It just made him reluctant to let Tony out of his sight.

The trouble with that was that Steve didn't even have to think about that to know Tony wouldn't stand for that kind of behaviour. Tony was fiercely independent and Steve's protective impulses had caused them both some trouble in the first couple of months they'd spent together.

Not, Steve thought wryly, that Tony had any room to talk, where protective and jealous impulses were concerned. But for the sake of not getting into a fight with Tony on a more or less daily basis, Steve had learned to let a lot of things slide. Tony had too, to be fair, but the man was even more stubborn than Bucky had been.

"You're brooding again," Tony told him, not looking away from the charts placed on a sloped wooden board beside him and secured with a clip at each corner. "Thought I'd distracted you sufficiently."

"Can't help it," Steve told him, knowing he had to sound a bit rueful. "Something about this has me on edge, and I can't pin down what."

"Well, we'll be at Midway in a few hours," Tony told him, "and we can go for a swim in those three hours or so that refueling the airship and its preflight checks will take."

That... was an appealing thought. It would be near the island where he'd first found Tony, and there was a certain appropriateness to the idea. A certain symmetry. He smiled. "I like that idea."


	3. Chapter 3

Their arrival at Midway Island generated some excitement among the crew maintaining the runways there. They didn't, strictly speaking, have a proper anchor point for an airship, but with a bit of improvisation, they and Jarvis and Rhodey had made things work. Rhodey had carefully stayed aboard the airship, though, keeping her stable in the light breeze, while Jarvis played liaison with the airfield crew. Tony, when he'd made his appearance, had had to sign a few autographs. There were a few new faces here that he hadn't seen last year, and they'd heard he would be stopping off here with his team. They'd coaxed Rhodey off the airship without much trouble, too. Steve had seen the pleased smile that pulled out of Tony and Jarvis alike.

Racism was something Steve still had trouble wrapping his head around.

Oh, he knew it happened. He'd seen it, heard about it, watched Rhodey very carefully negotiate certain social situations. Tony had explained it to him after they'd gotten underway to New York for the first time, along with a few other social concepts that made no sense at all. He just didn't _understand_ it. The idea of looking down on someone for the color of their scales was... _foreign_. But he had enough context to know what he was witnessing was unusual.

When Tony stepped up to him -- taking advantage of not being under scrutiny while everyone else was happily plying Rhodey and Jarvis for stories of their adventures with Tony, eager to get another perspective on it all -- Steve raised an eyebrow at him.

"Come on," Tony told him, "it's now or never."

They proceeded to spend nearly all the time remaining of the three hours playing in the waves. It had been as simple as stripping down on the beach, swimming out until they could duck under the water, and letting the change come over them.

Steve had simply enjoyed seeing Tony swim for the first few minutes, the contrast with their first encounter strong as anything -- this time Tony could hold his breath far longer, and, though he didn't yet have proper fins, his hands and feet went webbed when he allowed the change to come over him. It was a distinct relief to hear the ever-present stutter of his heart smooth out, too, but that was something that was Not Talked About in the same way Bucky was. Thinking about the reason why he had that plate in his chest distressed Tony, and Steve hated causing him pain, so he'd stopped asking, even indirectly, after the first couple of attempts had backfired hard enough to leave Tony a shaking, emotional mess.

Setting that tangled snarl of thoughts aside, Steve decided it was time they made the most of their swim and took Tony by the hand. He intended to lead his lover to a little grotto he knew was hidden in a corner of the reefs, here, and proceed to _wreck_ Tony as much as he could in the time they had, relishing the closeness they shared now and the fact that he could actually _do this_ with Tony.

When he'd first felt the pull of Tony's presence a year ago, he'd wondered just who could be calling to him that strongly. When he'd realised it was a human, he'd hesitated. Hesitated a long time. Had it been another of his kind, he would have approached them immediately. But a human? Steve had wrestled with the idea for the better part of two days.

Now, Steve felt the fierce joy pooling behind his sternum echoed back from Tony. Now, he wouldn't give Tony up if you offered him the moon.

The grotto had a tiny air bubble at its back just as Steve had remembered, and that was good. It would serve as an emergency measure if Tony ran out of air. He had no idea whether that was even a risk, but he wasn't about to repeat those episodes of drowning he still sometimes dreamt about. Tony had given him a real scare, and Steve still got a little angry remembering it.

Refocusing, he double checked that the little grotto was still protected enough that they didn't have to worry much about predators or rival clans surprising them. It had been, the last time he'd been here, but if anyone else had been here recently...

Satisfied, he turned back to Tony, who'd spent the time exploring the little space, poking into the little nooks and crannies, clearly trying to figure out what Steve had brought him here to show him.

Steve smirked, knowing it probably looked predatory, and swam over to Tony to wrap his arms around Tony's waist, consciously mirroring what Tony had done on the airship, and leaned in to catch Tony's ear between his teeth.

Tony jerked in his arms and groaned.

Steve let his hands wander, riling up Tony up as ruthlessly as he could manage.

It wasn't long before Tony was coming with a shout and slumping heavily against him. Steve enjoyed the sensation of Tony's still-heated skin on his, but he wanted more. Rather than wait for Tony to come down off the high, he kept up his touches, enjoying the shudders that they sent through Tony. This was something he'd been wanting to try for a while; he himself could easily go twice or three times in a row, but pure-human Tony couldn't. Now, though.

Now, Tony was more than simply human, and Steve wanted to know if that translated to more than just the scales Tony was developing.

Half an hour later, Steve grinned at his rather exhausted looking lover.

It definitely did.


	4. Chapter 4

After that, being back on the airship was almost jarring, and Steve knew Tony could tell he was feeling suddenly awkward. Tony kept shooting him glances that attempted to ask questions, but they went unanswered. It felt like there was a distance growing between them, somehow, despite their swim, a gulf separating them, and Steve hated it, but he wasn't sure how to fix it, much less what had caused it. He felt oddly adrift, in a way he hadn't since he'd met Tony and he didn't like that one bit.

There was no time to really work through it, though, because they were halfway to their destination, now, and needed to plan and sleep.

It would be another twelve hours -- most of which Steve intended to make sure Tony spent resting -- a short stopover in the Philippines to refuel, and then three hours later they would be arriving. Tony would be as close to on-mission as he ever got, at that point.

Steve'd never seen it this intense before -- Tony had gone off alone or with just Jarvis and Pepper on several other adventures that required organising a full-scale expedition without Steve over the past year, though he'd brought Steve along on the less involved ones -- and somehow he just knew it would be amazing.

He was right, too.

Tony's whole demeanour changed as they started planning the details of their search; as Rhodey joined them, briefly leaving the helm for this discussion, Tony shed the layers of metaphorical armour he used in New York, and replaced them with others. Thinner ones, more like hardened leather and scale than steel.

Steve had to set those thoughts aside, though, while they pored over and analysed the references Tony had gathered for this trip.

"So. Based on what I've been able to find out," Tony opened the discussion, "the Pearl was originally enshrined in a temple on a volcanic island, but it sank beneath the waves for whatever reason. Possibly magical, possibly geological. I don't know for sure; the records I've found don't mention anything about the why. Only that it sank. Now, as you've probably guessed, because it's underwater, this island is not on any modern charts -- maritime or otherwise -- but I managed to get hold of much older chart from the late 16th century[1]."

Steve watched as Tony unrolled a vellum scroll and used the various mugs and flatware still on the table to keep it from rolling back up. He couldn't read the unfamiliar characters, but he could see that it showed an island roughly at the center of the Maldives chain that was no longer there on the modern chart on the wall behind Tony.

"There's no information on what we'll need to do to get to the Pearl, though. None of my sources bothered to write that up, and that has me a bit wary." Tony caught their eyes, in turn. "Most of the artifacts we've gone after have been documented a bit more thoroughly, for all that said documentation was usually cryptic, couched in riddles and rhyme."

Oddly, that was reassuring.

"If you're going in blind," Pepper pointed out, "this could easily get you injured. Underwater."

Rhodey added his support. "Boss, if you think that's a good plan, you've got another think coming."

Tony grinned. "Luckily Steve will be there to help me out, if that happens. And also luckily, we don't have to worry about him running out of air."

Jarvis eyed Tony. "You on the other hand, will need some kind of air supply."

Oh, right, Steve realised. They hadn't told Pepper or Jarvis about Tony's transformation.

Tony's grin only widened. "Actually," he told Jarvis, "I won't either."

"What are you talking about?" Jarvis demanded, and Pepper leaned forward in her chair, planting her elbows on the table.

"Tony Stark," Pepper said slowly, her tone conveying a strong warning, "what are you playing at?"

"Remember when I told you about Steve," Tony replied obliquely, "and how we agreed that information would go no further?"

Tony's three oldest friends nodded.

"Spit it out," Jarvis demanded gruffly.

"Turns out that-- well, here." Tony held out his hands, letting the change wash over him, and Steve could only imagine how uncomfortable that likely was, with all his clothing still on and his shoes on his feet.

The change drew startled exclamations from all of them. Jarvis picked up one hand, and turned it this way and that in the light of the kitchen. Pepper was doing the same with the other.

Rhodey was giving Steve the stink eye. "This is your fault, isn't it," he challenged.

Steve shrugged. "It was unintentional, but yes."

"Hey, boss," Rhodey caught Tony's attention. "You sure you're okay with this?"

"Hm? Oh, sure." Tony nodded. "Don't see why this wouldn't be okay."

Jarvis snorted. "Maybe because the minute anyone official gets wind of it you'll both wind up on a dissection table?"

Pepper winced at the idea, but Steve spoke first, a distinctly threatening growl underlying his words. "They're welcome to try."

Tony took his hands back and made the scales disappear again. "Easy enough to resolve. We'll publish it in _Marvels_. We can blame it on this Pearl we're trying to recover. Tell the world, in a way no one will believe for a damn second."

Pepper watched him with a level gaze for a long minute. "That won't hold any legal water. You know that."

Waving that away with one hand and taking Steve's hand with his other, Tony replied, "Fine, I'll update my will. But I'm not giving Steve up, and that means dealing with the fish scales. Now to get back to the point..."

\------

[1] [This](https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/node/1168803?mode=) is the map that I'm basing things on. It's real. ;)


	5. Chapter 5

The remaining hours of their trip passed without incident. After Tony's declaration, the others had accepted that he wasn't going to be moved, and Steve knew he'd likely been scowling darkly at the idea, himself. Their discussion of precisely how to proceed hadn't gotten them far, really. They'd brought Tony's plane in the belly of the airship, but it wouldn't be of any help to them in reaching the temple or exploring it. Tony didn't own a submarine -- a lack he'd since sworn to remedy -- so they would be diving. Well, Pepper and Rhodey would anyway; they had brought diving equipment. Jarvis, as their best trained field medic and mechanic, would stay aboard the airship and play backup.

The thing about it was that, since the former island the temple was supposedly on didn't show up on their navigational charts -- probably due to some sort of magical interference -- they had no idea how deep under the surface it rested. If that happened to be lower than the forty or so meters Pepper and Rhodey could travel with their air tanks, then any exploration of the building would likely fall to Steve. They weren't sure whether Tony would be fine at those depths.

Odds were that it wouldn't be a problem, but Tony had declared outright that he wasn't going to make any assumptions; he knew better than to do that with any kind of magic involved. Steve had been inclined to agree. If the way he'd only been able to hold his human form for a week or ten days at the beginning was any indication, it was likely that Tony wouldn't be able to keep his scales on forever.

The discussion had dissolved into contingency planning after that, and Steve had more or less stopped paying attention. That was more Tony's domain and his team's. For his part, Steve planned to keep a close eye on Tony. The rest ought to take care of itself. Either they would make it to the temple or not. And if they did make it, it would be Tony who would be focusing on dealing with whatever traps were between them and their goal.

When their impromptu meeting broke up -- Rhodey had needed to get back to the helm and the others followed his lead, retreating from the kitchen -- Tony had simply settled in farther with his charts. Steve had taken the opportunity to lean back in his chair and reach out to run his hand through the soft curly hair behind Tony's ear.

Despite the new distance between them that Steve could feel, they could still read one another perfectly, and they still worked in almost seamless tandem as a team. It was bewildering.

He didn't want to bring it up, though.

Telling Tony something like that, after the declaration he'd just made that he intended to keep Steve for as long as he wanted to be kept? That was the worst kind of self sabotage and he knew it. He might be generally bad at relationships, but he knew that.

When Steve refocused on the physical world, setting his thoughts aside, he was startled to realise just how much time had gone by. They were descending to make their stop in the Philippines already, and that meant he and Tony had sat here through most of the night.

"Tony," Steve decided it was time to put his lover to bed, "come on. On your feet."

"But I've almost--" Tony tried to protest, his voice an indistinct mumble.

"Nope, come on. You're coming with me, and we're getting some sleep," Steve told him, hooking his hands under Tony's arms and hauling him bodily out of his chair. He got a startled squawk and a squirm in response.

"Steve! What--"

"You need to rest, and so do I. Are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?"

Tony leered at him. "Definitely the hard way."

Rolling his eyes, Steve shook his head at Tony and steered him firmly out of the kitchen and down the short corridor to their shared bedroom. Once the door was shut behind them, Tony seemed to go limp. His head came down to rest on Steve's shoulder, and Steve took that as his cue to start stripping Tony's clothes off. The suspenders disappeared first, followed by the shirt, Steve's fingers nimble on the buttons, and then Tony's slightly worn trousers. Once Tony was down to his skivvies, Steve pulled the covers on the bed down, and poured him onto the mattress.

Tony sat there, seeming suddenly a lot older than he had this morning. Tired.

Steve stripped quickly down and joined him, pulling Tony close against himself, and holding him there. "There. Sleep. I'll wake you before we get there."

The strange distance between them was also muting the sensation their bond was transmitting.

Forcing his growing unease aside, Steve close his own eyes, and tried to clear his mind.

When he woke again, three hours later, it was to Jarvis knocking on their door and calling out to them. "We're fifteen minutes out. Rhodes and Pepper are checking their gear and the rappelling lines are ready."

Steve scrubbed at his face with his hands, still somewhat tired, as Tony groaned and forced himself into a sitting position.

"Okay, I guess you had a point about the sleep. Ugh," he grumbled, tone shading toward disgusted.

Steve let his hand trail up Tony's back to his shoulder and into his hair, as he stood. "Let's get you some water," he offered. Coffee wasn't recommended for divers, and Jarvis was sticking to that rule like glue.

When they joined the others in the cargo hold, located below the main floor containing the living quarters, Steve automatically scanned the skies around them and the waters they would soon be swimming in. Everything looked clear, and Steve relaxed a little -- maybe this would go off smoothly, after all. There was no sign of HYDRA or any of their other enemies, so the odds were good that they'd managed to slip out of New York without attracting too much undue attention. They had arrived, and had done so with enough head start to get what they came for, if they were quick about it.

Somehow, though, in those last ten minutes as Jarvis carefully positioned the airship low in the air over the expanse of water that ought to conceal their objective, if the charts and their calculations were correct, things started going sideways.

Just before they were going to rappel down and begin their search, Tony spotted something.

"That's not a good sign," he muttered. "There's a boat patrolling the area -- it's only just visible on the horizon for now -- but it's definitely not a friendly cruiser, and heading right for our position." Tony cursed roundly. "I don't like the idea, but there's nothing for it." Tony grabbed Steve around the waist, making Steve's unease come roaring back to life to catch in his throat and choke off whatever he'd intended to say to that.

"Jarvis!" Tony yelled, pitching his voice to carry up to the open cockpit window, "get the airship the hell out of artillery range! You've got a German cruiser on the horizon, southeast. Half an hour out!" Turning to Pepper and Rhodey and stripping off his boots, he added, "Steve and I are jumping. Stay with Jarvis and find a place to moor the airship, then come back out here to get us in an hour or two. Rent a boat or something."

And then, before Steve could fully process what Tony intended to do, Tony's arms were around his waist and they were falling. Steve's arms flew out in an attempt to grab hold of something to keep his balance and missed, and then they were plummeting through the air toward the surface of the Pacific.


	6. Chapter 6

_Double damn everything!_ Steve wasn't prepared for this in the least, and he knew he made a panicked sound he'd deny to his dying day. It took him a few precious seconds before he gritted his teeth in a mix of exhilaration, panic, and pure frustration and shifted to tuck Tony protectively against his chest, carefully positioning the both of them for a dive he hadn't really intended to make. The plan had been for them to rappel down with Rhodey and Pepper. Not take a hundred-foot header into the ocean. Steve decided he stood by his initial assessment. Tony had less self-preservation instinct than a dead starfish, and he was definitely going to get himself killed, this way.

Steve wrapped an arm around Tony's back to support his head and neck, keeping Tony firmly pinned to his chest as they fell, all his protective instincts hounding him to keep his lover safe. A hint of apology that felt like 'sorry, no other way; no time' filtered through their bond, and Steve pushed it aside in favor of taking a deep breath as they neared the water's surface. This was going to _hurt_.

Sure enough, the shock of it just about knocked the air right back out of him, even though they'd hit the water perfectly and with barely a ripple. Tony juddered and jerked against him, clearly feeling the impact with the water and the changes in pressure and temperature sharply despite the protective arm Steve had around him. Steve himself wasn't doing much better. That had been a higher fall than any he'd ever done before, and the adrenaline was still sizzling through him, making his muscles shake and his heart pound.

Their momentum took them a full ten meters beneath the surface before they slowed to a stop, hanging motionless and somewhat disoriented in the water. The lack of momentum felt odd, after the speed of their plunge. It was disorienting. Steve righted them, using a short stream of bubbles to determine which way was up, and hastily shed his pants, shoving them through one of the straps of his empty weapon harness. He took a moment to let the change wash over him, feeling the usual sense of relief as he traded legs for his usual scales, then checked Tony over for injuries properly, sliding his hands over Tony's arms and chest. When his hands encountered scales, he relaxed. Good. They had at least three hours or so before they'd have to find Tony an air supply, and he didn't seem to have hurt himself.

Taking Steve's hand, Tony pointed downward.

Tony couldn't speak yet, in this form, though they'd worked out that he could understand Steve. In this moment Steve regretted that Tony couldn't, though he never had before. He caught Tony's chin with one hand, the touch soft, and asked, _\-- It's deeper than you've gone before. Are you sure? --_

The bond between them, stronger underwater and when they were both wearing scales or, better still, also touching, sang with a mix of apprehension, determination, and resignation. It wasn't a strictly reassuring combination, but Steve knew Tony would insist.

Sure enough, Tony didn't wait for him to respond, tugging at Steve's hand and towing him along for the first meter or so. Steve took over after that, letting Tony husband his energy, and down they went, the sensation of depth pressing on him with each additional meter. Twenty meters below the surface. Thirty-five. Forty.

Steve paused there, checking on Tony. He knew he could go a lot deeper than they had thus far, but they had reached the limit of the depths human divers were allowed to explore, and he didn't want Tony injuring himself by pushing himself too hard too fast. They had no real idea what his new transformation would tolerate and what he could do without risking depth sickness. It was clear to Steve that Tony was showing no real signs of strain or distress, though, besides an insistent itch that came clearly across the bond and roughly translated as 'shit, shit, better hurry'.

The temple seemed to loom, its conical roof[2] some twenty more meters below them and off to their left, its bulk seeming somehow vast and menacing. This deep under the surface, everything around them was tinted shades of blue, and there were fewer curious fish that would come up to them and nibble at their skin than there had been along the reefs near the Hawai'ian islands. The temple itself, some thirty meters below them, and half hidden in the gloom, looked like something out of one of Tony's _Marvels_ illustrations. Looking more closely, Steve could see that it was built in a more or less traditional Asian buddhist style, something Steve had learned about after Tony had told him about his meeting with the dragon Fin Fang Foom.

Cautiously, Steve continued on. He insisted on checking on Tony every few meters, but did it without stopping their progress. After the second check, Tony pinched the skin over Steve's ribs, hard, and Steve yelped, a bit pained. The irritation on Tony's face was enough to make him sigh, and Steve gave in.

They passed the spire of the temple's roof, and a long series of stone courses that reminded Steve of stairs, before they reached the arches rising above the entrance of the temple. It felt like their trip had taken forever, but Steve knew they'd only spent about a minute crossing those twenty meters. It had been about three since they'd hit the water's surface. And now, the truly nerve-wracking part of their trip was about to begin.

That would have been bad enough, as far as Steve was concerned, but with the appearance of that cruiser on the horizon they suddenly had a time limit, as well.

\------

[2] Click the [LINK](http://gohighbrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/5.3-Ancient-Buddhist-temples-in-Bagan-Myanmar.jpg) to see what these looked like.


	7. Chapter 7

Depending on the cruiser's speed, Steve thought as he paused, staring up at the enormous reinforced wooden double doors hanging half off their hinges, they'd have maybe half an hour to get into the temple and search for the Pearl.

Getting in past the door was as simple as swimming through, but the space beyond it was nearly pitch dark. Tony fiddled with something at his belt, and a bright light came on that had Steve squinting and turning his face away until his eyes adjusted.

Tony caught his attention once Steve looked back in his direction and gave him a rueful, mostly apologetic look before he turned to examine the foyer they found themselves in. A small roughly circular space with painted murals lining the walls, it must have been spectacular before it had sunk beneath the ocean. Now the colors of the murals were faded, and the walls themselves were crusted with sea life. Barnacles and small corals occupied the sheltered corners of the room, and a few small fish peered out at them from hiding places in between said corals. The subjects of the murals were still somewhat visible, though the details had long faded. All three of the murals featured a Buddha, albeit each in a different pose, and in each mural Steve spotted a large bright circle, about the size of man's fist. Though it wasn't clear anymore what the object was supposed to be, it was easy enough to guess. That had to be a representation of the Pearl.

Tony ignored the art on the walls that had so readily gotten Steve's attention, and made a beeline for the door on the far side of the small chamber, examining it carefully before touching it.

The inner door was far more ornate than the outer, which had been made from plain, though quite thick, planks of wood, held together with large metal studs and reinforcing beams on the inner surface. This one had been ornamented with so many intricate carvings that Steve couldn't tell where one ended and the next began. Set roughly in the middle of the door was a raised square panel with a knob, about as big across as Steve's hand, if he spread his fingers as far as they would go. It was also ornamented with carvings, and the knob itself resembled some sort of flower. A lotus, perhaps. Those were considered sacred by many of the humans' older cultures.

It was pretty obviously the way forward, so why wasn't Tony taking it?

He reached for the knob, intending to open the door, and startled when Tony immediately grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him away, glaring at him.

The strong feeling of 'don't do that' that echoed between them for a moment was disorienting in its intensity.

Letting go of him, Tony reached out to delicately grasp the knob from below, without covering it with his palm, and twist slowly. A wickedly sharp spike shot violently out of the center of the knob, and Steve winced. That would not have been a pleasant trap to blunder into. _\-- You've made your point, --_ he told Tony, _\-- but how do we open it, then? --_

Tony shrugged at him, wrapped his hand cautiously around the back of the knob and pulled gently.

To Steve's surprise, the door opened easily, and he gave Tony a look before he pointed out the murals. _\-- Before we go deeper into this place, look at the walls. --_

Tony's eyes narrowed when he shone his light at them, and he nodded. After a quick survey of the murals, he caught Steve's wrist and tugged. Steve went easily, letting Tony pull him back toward the door and through, closing it behind them. It shut with a loud click of its mechanisms resetting, and then they were in a small square room with three doors.

They seemed to coincide with the three murals, each one bearing a bas-relief carving of the mural in the corresponding position in the first room.

Tony grinned, immediately swimming over to the one to their left and taking a closer look. That one featured a Buddha seated in the traditional lotus position, each foot resting on the opposite knee, his back straight and his expression calm. It looked like a benediction. The Buddha's hands were positioned differently in each of the three murals, and these carvings featured the same poses. This first one held his right hand up, palm out to display the markings on it, and the other rested on his left knee[3]. In the left hand, he cupped a sphere Steve assumed had to be the Pearl.

_\-- Tony? --_ He tried to get his lover's attention to ask a question.

Tony didn't turn away from his study of the carving, only holding a hand up in a gesture that clearly asked, 'wait a minute?'.

Trying to be patient -- he'd learned from his near-injury with the trap in the doorknob, thanks -- he waited until Tony turned away from the carving. When he saw he had Tony's attention again, he asked, _\-- What do they mean? --_

Tony shrugged and took Steve's hand. A wordless sense of curiosity and interest washed over Steve, and he gave Tony a sardonic look. _\-- You don't know, do you. --_

With a cheerful grin and a shake of his head, Tony went back to what he was doing, focusing his attention on the center carving, now. That one was posed in nearly the same way. Only the hand positions were different. This Buddha had his left hand in his lap, cradling the same sphere as in the other image. The right hand was positioned over his right knee and held some kind of flower. [4] Possibly another of those lotus flowers, Steve guessed.

The last, to the right of the door they'd come through, had both his hands in his lap, one palm up and the other palm down, and in between he cradled that familiar sphere. [5]

Tony let himself drift back into the center of the room with a thoughtful hum resonating in his throat. Steve tried not to distract him. If these traps were meant to guard something powerful, the odds were good that they would only get deadlier the closer they got to the Pearl.

After a minute's thought, Tony turned to the last carving, on their right, and reached out to touch the representation of the Pearl. With a click, it slid easily into a small recess in the carved door, and the door itself slid open.

Tony eyed it warily, as though that had been too easy.

Steve was inclined to agree.

\------

[3] [Pose reference 1](http://www.thebuddhagarden.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/chinese-buddha-statue.jpg.jpg)  
[4] [Pose reference 2](http://www.thebuddhagarden.com/images/statues/pn/st_bd_medicine_india_main.jpg)  
[5] [Pose reference 3](https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/e2310c560016cbd8_4-4730/traditional-garden-statues-sculptures-and-art.jpg)


	8. Chapter 8

The traps came at them thick and fast after that: more pressure plates; three separate spike traps, including one that had been intended to fall from the ceiling and crush whoever was in the room; and an intricate labyrinth with walls that ran from floor to ceiling. That particular barrier had tried to kill them four times and had taken them some time to solve.

Steve spared a moment as they reached the end of said labyrinth to be grateful that they weren't walking along the floors, where there were doubtless even more traps that they had managed to bypass by dint of swimming through the flooded temple. As it was, the traps had slowed their progress down to a crawl, and it had taken them nearly twenty minutes just to navigate through the twenty meters between them and the center of the temple.

The structure had turned out to have a lot more rooms and levels than Steve had imagined. That didn't seem to faze Tony, though.

At length, they finally reached a large open hall, lit far better than really could have been expected for a human structure this far under the ocean, much less in a temple built of solid stone with wooden doors, and no windows, but Tony relaxed. Steve scanned the area. This chamber looked like a large meditation hall, or possibly an area meant for celebrations. It was certainly large enough to hold a lot of people. That didn't really make sense, though, when Steve thought about it, with all the traps that a group of people would have had to disable to get here to meditate, but that was the feel that the area gave off. It was oddly serene and felt well-insulated from the world.

They explored it, thoroughly but quickly. It was clear that Tony felt the ticking of the clock even more now than he had before, and he was starting to make Steve feel anxious with the tension he was radiating. He was right, too. They had taken a lot of time to get to this point, and that cruiser was likely to get to them soon, if it hadn't already.

After they'd finished their survey of the rest of the large room, they came to a structure with a shape and function that seemed to fall somewhere between that of an altar and a pedestal, with a Buddha statue the height of a man placed on its surface. The Buddha's hands were resting on its crossed legs like those of the carving on that second door they'd passed through what felt like years ago [5], and it had once held a crimson red cushion of some sort in its lower hand. The cushion was more or less preserved, but looked about to fall to dust. Atop the cushion was an object that could only be the artifact they'd come for: a pearl the size of Steve's fist.

Tony didn't simply reach for it, though. And Steve knew better than to do that, himself, after all the traps they'd navigated to get here. Cautious, Tony swam around the base of the altar, his eyes intent, then inspected the wall behind it. There was another mural behind the altar, probably a replica of the mural that had been just inside the main doors, albeit it much larger and more lavish. This mural contained the same image of a Buddha with his hands held parallel to the floor palms facing one another, a large pearl hanging between them and shining like a miniature sun. Much of the image was picked out in what Steve assumed was gold, and there were quite a lot of smaller pearls the size of his thumbnail embedded in the mural for decoration. The rich colors of this mural had survived better than those near the temple doors, too, rich reds, oranges and yellows making the scene feel like it warmed the whole room. There were words beneath the image, picked out in more gold leaf, in a script that looked identical to that Steve had seen on the old map. It seemed to mean something to Tony, who read it slowly and carefully before nodding to himself in satisfaction.

Before he could take action, though, an explosion rocked the temple, the concussion shuddering through them both and sending Steve's sense of balance off into some crazy dazed spirals. He groaned, his ears ringing, and shook his head in an attempt to clear it. This was bad. Anything that could cause explosions strong enough to rock a solid stone temple to its foundations could only be coming from that cruiser.

It was obvious that they were out of time.

Inwardly cursing, Steve fought to get his bearings back. Tony looked just as disoriented, when Steve managed to right himself. _\-- Come on, Tony, --_ he gritted out, _\-- time to go! --_

Tony nodded, hurrying around the base of the statue, his motions a bit clumsy due to the disorientation, to make some gestures that looked a lot like ornate genuflections followed by some kind of brief meditation that was interrupted by another explosion. He growled, frustrated, and started over. Steve could only stand by and watch, every inch of him tense and on edge, as he waited for Tony to go through those final trials to get to their objective.

The second time, he managed to get through the process before the next concussion hit them. Riding out the disorientation that came with it, Tony gingerly reached for the Pearl.

Over their bond, Steve could feel the distinct sense of 'need to get out of here' that Tony was fighting. He needed to get the Pearl without setting off any more traps. That was the absolute last thing they wanted to have to deal with right now. They had no idea how stable this place was likely to be, and Steve definitely had no desire to be stuck under who-knew-how-many tonnes of falling rock.

Another explosion sent Steve's sense of direction haywire again, and he missed the moment Tony grabbed for the Pearl, picking it up and cupping it in his hands like the Buddha in the image. Time seemed to stop for a long second, and the Pearl flashed brighter than the sun, and almost as warm. Steve, blinded by it, turned away, screwing his eyes shut against the bright light in an attempt to get his vision back. All he could see was a greasy smear of yellow and purple against the backs of his eyelids.

A startled shout grabbed his attention a moment later, though. _\-- Steve! --_

\------

[5] Here is a [second link to pose reference 3](https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/e2310c560016cbd8_4-4730/traditional-garden-statues-sculptures-and-art.jpg).


	9. Chapter 9

Prying his eyes open had Steve seeing the same yellow and purple spots that closing them had, but this time they faded away until they were overlaid by Tony's worried eyes. _\-- Tony? --_ Steve reached out, _\-- you can talk now? What? How--? --_

_\-- Nevermind that. We need to get the hell out of here before this place gets blown to smithereens. --_ Tony was eyeing the ceiling of the large room warily. _\-- We have no way of knowing how long we have until the ceiling comes down on us. --_

Before Steve could find the words to respond, Tony looped an arm around his waist and was towing him back toward the doorway they'd come through.

The doorway abruptly filled with a figure he'd expected never to see again. When the first sucker-covered arm appeared, curling almost delicately around the doorframe, Steve went tense. As more arms quickly came into view, their color and texture matching the walls perfectly, Steve pulled free of Tony's arms. He ignored the sounds of protest he got as he pushed Tony behind him protectively.

When the head and torso that went with the arms came into view, Steve didn't know what the hell to think or feel. He'd wanted this for so long. Hoped against all reason. But... Something was very wrong. That was Bucky, but the body language was all wrong. And why had he shown up here? Why had he shown up now, so long after he'd vanished, and Steve had given up on ever seeing him again? Was this another trap? Something the Pearl was doing?

_\-- Bucky? --_ He stared down his old friend and former bondmate warily. _\-- Buck, what are you doing here? --_

All he got was an almost confused scowl. _\-- Who the hell is Bucky? --_

The query startled Steve enough that the situation turned into a tense stand-off. He tried again after a beat, not about to back down. Not while Tony was also potentially in the line of fire; Bucky looked like he would attack at the slightest provocation. _\-- Why are you here? --_ He asked.

_\-- You will hand over the Pearl, --_ Bucky responded flatly, as though it was a foregone conclusion.

_\-- Yeah, fat chance, --_ Tony interjected, apparently deciding against keeping quiet. _\-- I don't know who you are, octopus-man, but this sure as hell isn't your temple, or your Pearl. --_

That comment tipped the balance, and Bucky launched himself forward through the doorway. Bucky managed to feint right and take advantage of Steve's reflexive turn to grab him from behind. Sucker-covered arms wrapped around Steve's arms, neck, tail, and waist, the suckers underneath latching on tightly as Bucky used his hands -- one of which was metallic and strange -- to cut off Steve's air [6].

Steve was forced to use all the dirty tricks he'd ever learned as a hatchling just to keep from going down immediately. Whatever had happened to Bucky in the time he'd been gone had clearly made him stronger, and that made him very dangerous. Bucky had already been strong, before. But now, Steve was very literally fighting for his life, and hampered by his reluctance to injure Bucky.

_\-- Bucky! --_ Steve tried reaching out again and again, trying to get through to the bond they'd once shared, and weathering the punches and blows that won him in response. Trying to use the broken end of the bond he could still access felt a bit like trying to punch through a stone wall. It was hard, harsh, cold and unyielding, but oddly brittle.

Tony was making distressed noises off to one side, clearly wanting to intervene and not seeing a way to do it without injuring Steve.

When Bucky snarled and went for the kill, managing to set his teeth at the base of Steve's neck, Tony evidently hit his breaking point.

_\-- Stop! --_ He screamed, the word somehow infused with a power Steve had never heard before. It seemed to shiver through the water in the temple like a particularly clear musical note, and Steve shivered right along with the water.

The amazing thing, though, was that Bucky did, too.

Something incomprehensible happened in the space of the second that the word hung in the water. The block on the broken end of the bond seemed to shatter, and Steve found himself nearly drowning in the maelstrom of emotion pouring off Bucky. Anger, fear, worry, guilt, and loneliness so crushing Steve nearly broke down and wept just at the thought.

The tableau held like that for a long moment, Steve gasping and trying not to draw Bucky's attention while he struggled to deal with the raw emotions. When he glanced over, trying not to move anything but his eyes, Tony was floating in the water, seeming to glow from within, his eyes unnaturally bright and the Pearl casually held in his left hand at waist height, with his right held out in front of him in that universal 'stop' gesture, palm out and hand vertical.

Letting the tension ebb slightly, Tony watched Bucky carefully. _\-- Who sent you to get the Pearl? --_ He asked levelly, his tone demanding a response.

Bucky resisted for a beat, clearly not sure whether to answer or not. Eventually he let go of his bite. _\-- Who sent you, Stark? --_

Tony grinned, and Steve breathed easier, abruptly feeling better. _\-- No one. I came here on my own decision. --_

_\-- And why is he here? --_ Bucky wanted to know, his meaning clear, though he didn't use a name.

Steve dared reach up with one hand, his wrist still firmly in the grip of one of Bucky's tentacles, to touch his old friend's intact shoulder. _\-- Because I wouldn't let him come alone. Buck, come on, tell us. --_

The request got a snarl out of Bucky, but it seemed less aggressive and more annoyed. _\-- You... I... --_ He hesitated. _\-- I don't know. --_

Tony nodded, as though he'd expected that. And maybe he had. Steve couldn't read him very well right now, bombarded by the Pearl's sensation of vague warmth and Bucky's anger and confusion. Another explosion made the temple's roof begin caving in. Three large stone blocks hit the floor behind them in rapid sequence, and Tony yelped. _\-- Shit! Okay, if we all want to get out of here alive, we have to leave. Now! Bucky, if that's your name, that's your only chance to get this Pearl. Gonna help us? --_

Steve felt the indecision shudder through Bucky, but after a few seconds that stretched into an eternity, he nodded, releasing Steve inch by wary inch and watching him the whole time. _\-- This way. --_

Tony nodded back, and quickly checked Steve over, his hands lingering over the many sucker-shaped bruises littering Steve's body before he decided Steve was more or less in one piece. _\-- Let's go. Come on, sweetheart. Getting buried alive isn't on my list of things to do today, --_ he quipped as he pulled Steve insistently toward the door Bucky was climbing through.

\------

[6] Since I just know this will be hard to picture, have another [pose reference](http://blog.andrewlorenzlong.com/?p=1516)!


	10. Chapter 10

Steve wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not that Bucky led them rapidly through a warren of corridors and unfamiliar rooms. He only relaxed when he could see out through the opening in the side wall of the temple that he assumed Bucky had taken advantage of to get inside.

Once they were in open ocean, the source of the explosions was obvious. The cruiser was nearly overhead and dropping depth charges into the waters, apparently not caring that they might kill anyone that was nearby. It was mostly through pure chance that they'd escaped thus far.

Steve couldn't tell whether whoever was aboard the cruiser thought maybe there was a submarine somewhere in the vicinity of the temple, though it was a logical assumption for a pure human to make, but in any case, the three of them needed to get clear of the hot zone. It baffled Steve that they were being so careless. It would make more tactical sense to let him and Tony get the Pearl before they attempted to take it. For that matter, Steve thought wryly, he didn't see how they planned to get the Pearl if they brought the temple down around it.

Once he was sure the two of them had made it out after him, Bucky picked what seemed like a random direction, arrowing off through the water like he knew exactly where he was going, and Tony followed, hauling Steve along. Steve himself was still a bit dazed by the turn the day had taken, but he followed gamely enough.

Steve couldn't seem to regain his equilibrium; having Bucky back in arm's reach after so many months was really throwing him off balance, even despite the fact that Bucky didn't seem to know who he was. Steve managed to get himself together enough not to make Tony tow his limp form through the water, but that was about all. Conversation between Tony and Bucky, if there was any, went sailing right past him unnoticed.

It took them some fifteen minutes to get far enough away from the temple that the reverberations of the depth charges no longer sent them reeling, and Steve spent most of that time trying -- and failing -- to cope with the idea that his old bondmate was alive and didn't seem to remember him at all. Worse, he could tell, Tony could feel it. Tony kept reaching out to him through their bond, feeling more upset each time.

The warm feeling coming from the Pearl dimmed with each increasingly upset attempt Tony made, and that was ultimately what pulled Steve back into the present. Well, more or less. He put his hands on Tony's jawbones as they drifted to a stop, immediately getting his lover's attention. _\-- Tony, --_ he said, trying to set aside the worry and anxiety he could suddenly feel rolling off his lover in long waves, _\-- Tony, hey. I'll work through it. --_

Bucky took that moment to pull his usual vanishing trick, seeing that they were both distracted. He had always done that, even when they'd been very young. At first it had been purely defensive, but when Bucky had worked out just how much it unsettled some of the other hatchlings, like Hodge, he'd taken to 'appearing' at random, anywhere he pleased. Clearly, the habit had stuck, even through whatever had happened to make him forget Steve. That was kind of reassuring.

Well, that was to say, it was to Steve, but Tony did _not_ react well. A shot of fear went down his spine and made Steve's breath hitch, followed by more worry and Steve got a momentary impression of Tony's eyes gone wide and almost wild before everything seemed to go a lot darker.

The warm sensation from the Pearl went out completely, snuffed like a light, and Steve shivered in the sudden comparative cold. Tony's emotions seemed to have a strong influence on the Pearl, and that meant he needed to get his lover's attention.

His first two attempts failed, and the temperature around them continued to drop, approaching freezing. Tony was shivering almost violently and Steve swore he could see the first ice crystals forming in the water around them and drifting upward.

This was all going out of control, and Steve didn't know how to stop it, but he had to, or they might end up dead of exposure before that cruiser caught up to them.

Tony's eyes caught his for a brief instant, frightened and lost, and then they closed as Tony suddenly fought to get free. Steve made a startled sound as a feeling like electricity surged through him, but didn't let go.

The intensity of the shock grew with each panicked and jerky movement of Tony's, and Steve knew he would lose his grip soon. Clenching his teeth against the rising pain in his muscles, he forced his hands tighter around Tony's upper arms.

Rather to both their surprise, that was the moment Bucky decided to intercede. _\-- Stark. --_

Steve spared a moment to wonder how Bucky knew Tony's name in the first place, then set the question aside for later. He had more important things on his mind.

_\-- Stark, --_ Bucky repeated more urgently, sounding like he wanted to roll his eyes, _\-- get a grip! --_

Somehow, that got through.

Tony pulled himself free of Steve's hands with a last violent writhe that made Steve want to wince, throwing his head back with a choked sound, but he actually did calm a bit.

Steve could see the iron control it took, but the feeling coming from the Pearl slowly warmed again, and this time it felt oddly soothing. More like basking than staring at the sun and risking burning one's eyes.

It got Bucky to uncurl a bit, and suddenly the metal arm was visible again.

That, weirdly, settled Tony a bit more.

_\-- God damn, --_ Tony muttered, sounding like he was caught between frustration and exhaustion, _\-- what is it with the emotional rollercoaster today? --_

Steve wanted nothing more in that moment than to wrap Tony up in his arms and insist they go home.

Bucky replied, after an awkward beat. _\-- You're a fine one to talk, --_ he snapped, sounding more like the Bucky Steve had used to know, _\-- you're the one holding that Pearl and messing with all three of us. --_

Steve was abruptly reminded of that weird resonance in the temple. _\-- You felt it, too? --_

Bucky snorted, one of his sucker-covered arms peeling free to curl almost hypnotically in the water. It was an anxious gesture. One that left him free to use it to defend himself, if need be. _\-- Felt what? --_ He scoffed a bit derisively, and Steve had to work to force down the hurt that statement evoked. _\-- That Pearl making it feel like I should know you? When I don't know my damn self? --_

Steve stared for a moment, at a total loss for what to say or do.

Tony did him one better. His hands flicking deftly through the water, he had the Pearl sandwiched between them, like he had in the temple, and this time it seemed to turn the water around them into a private little bubble. Suddenly the rumbling thunder of the depth charges continuing to go off around the temple was silenced, and Steve was surprised by just how effectively he'd been ignoring the sound. He'd barely noticed it anymore until it had stopped and the silence around them seemed to ring in his ears. Now, though, he could suddenly hear the tired rasp to Tony's breathing and the quiet whine underlying the sound.

Bucky, startled by the abrupt silence, seemed to fly up out of his hiding place, making Steve hastily put himself between Tony and his (former?) best friend. He didn't want a repeat of what had happened in the temple -- he had enough sucker-shaped bruises already and could feel them rising under skin and muscle; he would be _sore_ tomorrow -- but he wasn't about to let Bucky attack Tony.

Tony wasn't done yet, though. Once he'd isolated them in that bubble, buffering them from the sound and shuddering vibrations of the explosions -- Steve assumed whatever he'd done would also protect them for the time being -- the glow surrounding the Pearl seemed to change colors, shifting from blinding white to yellow to green and steadying on a bright blue the color of a reef fish. Bucky jerked, and stiffened, his eyes going wide and frightened and his skin going the pale sandy off-white he only showed when he was trying not to panic, looking like he wanted to bolt, but knew he couldn't.

In that same ringing, resonant voice he'd used in the temple, Tony spoke one word. _\-- Remember. --_


	11. Chapter 11

With a pained shout, Bucky collapsed, sinking back down to the ocean floor and writhing in pain. Steve had never seen Bucky react like this except that one time when they'd both been a lot younger and Bucky'd accidentally ended up in a tangle with a massive moray eel, so he was torn; was it better to go to Bucky and offer comfort in the form of skin-on-skin contact or stay back, so Bucky wouldn't hurt him in his thrashing? Steve knew his friend. Knew Bucky would blame himself for any injuries he gave Steve for about, oh, forever. The many bruises he'd already left littering Steve's skin and scales were bad enough, in that regard.

A long half minute later, Bucky went limp again and his side of their broken bond slammed wide open. Steve choked on his next breath and almost collapsed, himself. When Bucky spoke, his voice was hoarse. _\-- Where... Steve? What? Moon and Stars, what happened to you? Did I do that? And when did you pick up that stray? --_

Steve huffed at him. He could feel the pull of the bruises rising on his arms from his earlier tangle with his friend as he crossed them over his chest. _\-- It's a long story. You alright? We shouldn't linger here. --_

_\-- Other than the world's worst headache, --_ Bucky shot back, _\-- I think so. You punk. --_

Tony, still roughly behind him, picked that moment to slump against Steve, out cold, the Pearl rolling out of his hand and onto the seafloor, where Bucky scooped it up, and his eyes went wide. _\-- No wonder they wanted it, --_ was all he said, before he shook off whatever it was, and pointed at Tony with his chin. _\-- You're gonna have to carry him if you want us to make any kind of speed. --_

That statement made Steve really curious about that Pearl, and just what it could do, but now was decidedly not the time. 

Since the bubble of calm Tony had created was gone, Steve could tell that the explosions of the depth charges were getting closer. _\-- Right. Come on, Buck, we need to either get to shore somewhere or find a place with an air pocket where we can wait out these guys. We can't take them on directly. --_

Bucky's eyes narrowed and he thought quickly. _\-- There's a hidden cove with a beach not far from here, --_ he offered. _\-- A couple of klicks southwest. --_

_\-- Alright, lead the way. --_ Steve carefully gathered Tony up in his arms again. If they all got out of this in one piece, he'd be amazed.

_\-- And Steve, --_ Bucky added as he turned to orient himself, _\-- you're not getting out of telling me what the hell I missed. --_

Tony stirred in his arms and muttered something unintelligible, but quieted when Steve's arms tightened around him and Steve took off after Bucky. _\-- Once we're on that beach, and if we're sure no one's after us. --_

As they swam, Tony gradually grew more aware of what was happening. Steve could feel it. Tony felt... distant in the way he sometimes did after waking from a particularly vivid dream.

It took Steve a while to realise that he could also feel Bucky again, at a more normal level, but it was muted. And that despite the way they had slotted right back together like puzzle pieces, as though they hadn't been apart for a year and a half that had felt more like seven decades.

There was something about that that wasn't quite right, and Steve couldn't put his finger on it at first. Eventually, after about half a klick, it fell into place. Bucky was holding back. Was bottling up everything he felt behind the thickest walls he could throw up on the spot.

They weren't perfect, and Steve could tell Bucky was very upset about something other than the bruises reddening all over Steve's body, but not what or why.

Figuring that out would have to wait, though. They had bigger problems, and not a lot of time or resources to deal with them.

As they approached the beach and the waters began to shallow, they heard the distant rumble that meant the temple had finally collapsed fully under its own weight. He exchanged a look with Bucky and they moved faster. The drone of the cruiser's engines rose in volume as it revved up to begin what Steve assumed was likely to be a search pattern.

There were probably divers in the water as well, if he was any judge. Or possibly even a small submarine if they had one. The organization that had deployed this cruiser was either after Tony or the Pearl, but more likely both, and that meant the three of them desperately needed to get out of the water and out of sight. He tried to scan the water for any sign that they'd been spotted, but the visibility was too low to see whether anyone was pursuing them. That was making him very uneasy; they didn't have the means to take up a fight, right now. They needed to make contact with Pepper, Rhodey, and Jarvis, pronto, but Steve didn't see a way to do that, either.

The ocean floor was sloping upwards quickly now, the reefs surrounding Bucky's island coming into view and forcing them toward the surface. Bucky led him through several narrow cut-throughs in the reefs that sent schools of colorful fish scattering in their wake and let them into a small, sheltered cove.

Distracted as he was trying to keep an eye on their possible pursuers, Steve nearly swam face first into an outcrop of reef that suddenly loomed in front of him. To his relief, Tony used his bodyweight to send them off to one side of it, and Steve fought the rising embarrassment at being caught out like that. Bucky snickered at him.

The last few meters passed quickly, and then they were fetching up on the beach. Tony groaned, seeming to gasp for air for a long time before he found the energy to reach for the change and staggered up the sandy beach head. Steve waited for Bucky to follow suit before he did the same.


	12. Chapter 12

Bucky insisted that they get past the tree line, but that was about as far as Steve got before he gave in to the need to sit down. Rather than let him, Bucky grabbed him by the waist, ignoring Steve's continued hold on Tony, and hauled him into a small clearing with a reasonably clear spot of ground to its name and then let him settle. He didn't let go of Tony, which resulted in Tony being pulled down more or less into his lap. Steve couldn't find it in himself to regret that, even with the distraction that Bucky presented when he was in the nude.

The move got a raised eyebrow out of Bucky.

Somehow, Steve still had his pants, even after all that had happened. He freed one hand and pulled them out of their makeshift storage in his weapons harness, then tossed them at Bucky, who was unashamedly standing just out of arm's reach. "Here," he managed to say, hearing the hoarseness in his voice. "We can ask Pepper to bring me a spare set."

Bucky caught them, then gave him a curious look. "Pepper?" He asked eventually, the same whistle underlying his voice that Steve had had before he'd met Tony.

Meeting the look evenly, knowing his exhaustion was probably easily visible, Steve shrugged. "Yeah, she's a friend."

That statement got him a raised eyebrow that conveyed quite a bit of silent disbelief. Tony snickered at the expressiveness of the move. The lack of verbal communication to go with it didn't bother Steve. Bucky never had liked to speak extensively when he was on two legs.

"This brings back memories," Tony put in, sounding like he was enjoying listening to them banter and rib each other. "Sitting on a beach with a merman and waiting for Pepper and Jarvis." He huffed. "At least this time we didn't have a fight."

"There's a lot more danger that you'll get shot, though," Steve retorted. "And we are going to have a long talk about you deciding to _jump out of an airship without a parachute_."

Bucky choked on his next breath and started laughing.

"It was that or hang around to let the airship get shot out of the air," Tony said, shrugging and ignoring Bucky.

"We could have come back tomorrow!" Steve argued.

Tony snorted. "Steve, sweetpea," he said, in a tone so saccharine sweet it almost made Steve's teeth ache, "what happened to thinking tactically? If we'd tried that, the Pearl would have been long gone and the temple would probably still be destroyed." He paused and glanced around. "And speaking of which, where is it?"

Bucky held it up on his palm, gleaming in the sunlight as it dried. "Here."

Tony held out a hand in an unsubtle request, and Bucky eyed him for a moment before handing over the Pearl. Tony slipped it into a leather pouch Steve hadn't actively noticed until now, hanging from his belt at his right hip. The weird sensation of warmth coming from the jewel dimmed and then vanished, leaving a feeling a bit like an area of low pressure.

None of them spoke for a long moment.

"Well?" Bucky prompted, breaking the silence. "You promised me a story."

"I could say the same, jerk. What the hell happened to you? I thought you were dead."

"Tell me yours first," Bucky suggested, "And then we'll see."

His side of the story took a while to tell, albeit mostly because Tony kept interrupting him once they got to the part he featured in, but eventually Steve managed to get to the end. Bucky spent most of the time it took them to argue their way through the story watching Tony speculatively.

Steve wasn't sure what the hell that meant, exactly.

"So," Tony asked after a beat, "gonna tell us your side, now?"

Bucky's jaw worked for a moment. "I don't really know where to start?" He reached up with his organic hand and scratched at the back of his head, making a face when his hand got tangled in his hair. "The first thing I remember clearly is finding you at that temple."

Looking intrigued, Tony nodded. "Go on."

"Anything before that is a mess of muddled images and sounds until just before Steve says I disappeared." Bucky growled in frustration. "A few words that stand out, but make no sense. Winter. Soldier. Longing. Rusted. And a date: December seventeenth."

Tony jerked hard in Steve's hold, clearly startled. "And the images?"

"Those make even less sense," Bucky replied, letting out his breath on a sigh, "but a lot of them feel like they are from fights. And I know how to use a lot more human weapons than I did... before."

Tony let out a long slow breath, the air hissing between his teeth. "Well, shit. Okay. We can deal with that later. For now we need to decide what to do about our friends in the cruiser. We need to get rid of them somehow."

When he'd finished, a slightly awkward silence fell.

"So how do we do that?" Bucky asked. "I can't just go back home from here, if it even still exists, and you can't call in your airship without getting it shot down."

"For now," Tony replied, "we wait. They're still searching the waters, and that gives us the time to rest and regroup. If we can, we should make for Malé [7], where I'm pretty sure Jarvis took the airship. If my sense of direction is right, we should be roughly southwest of it."

"Which puts the cruiser between us and our destination," Steve pointed out.

Tony groaned. "Hopefully not for long. With a little luck they'll have moved out of our path for their search soon."

"And if they find us first?" Bucky wanted to know.

Tony gave him a sardonic look. "Well, I don't know about you," he quipped, "but I'm not currently in possession of the equipment to take on a cruiser and all the men aboard. Our best bet would be to hide or run. Or maybe run then hide."

\------

[7] The [Velana International Airport](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velana_International_Airport) was officially built in 1960 in our verse, but I'm borrowing it for this because I can.


	13. Chapter 13

When Tony had finished speaking, a slightly awkward silence fell.

"So now what?" Bucky asked when the quiet started to turn into tension. "I can't go anywhere without risking that whoever had me will try to retake me, and you can't call in your airship without getting it shot down."

Tony shrugged. "Well, for now we wait. If no one shows up before nightfall, we'll spend the night here and then make our way back to someplace where I can find a way to contact Pepper or Jarvis."

Steve considered that for a moment, then nodded. "More sensible than your plan to get to the temple."

"It worked, didn't it?" Tony rolled his eyes. "Look, we're all here, and unhurt. That's a better ending than a lot of my adventures have, and you know it. I've heard you pumping Jarvis for gossip. Anyway, our first priority is to not be found. Second is to find something to eat and some fresh water."

Bucky considered that, then stood without a word, dropped Steve's pants to the ground, and vanished into the underbrush, still barefoot and nude.

"Hey!" Tony tried to stop him. "Where do you think you're going?"

Before he could get a grip on Bucky's arm, the man had already disappeared. Moreover, Steve had gotten a grip on Tony's waist. "Give him a few minutes. I think I know what he has in mind."

Tony huffed as their connection sprang wide open at the touch. It sent an unexpected jolt of emotion through him, and made him jerk in Steve's arms. Their eyes met a moment later, and Tony took a deep steadying breath. "Steve," he breathed, voice suddenly hushed, "are you alright? You're shaking."

Oh. He was. He hadn't even realised it. "I'm fine."

Tony was concerned, now, and not about to let it go. "You know," he said, smoothing his hands down Steve's chest to rest against his well muscled stomach, "when I took that jump, I did it knowing you'd be there to keep me safe. And you did. It was a risk, sure, but I knew you would know how to handle a dive, and I knew you would rather take that hit yourself than let me. If anything I should be worried about _you_."

His hands traced a path back up, silencing Steve, who'd started trying to put together a coherent response to that. They tangled in his hair, tugging gently, then Tony scratched gently at his scalp in the way he knew Steve loved. It was a clear bid to calm him down, Steve knew, and damned if it wasn't working. "I know you're mad at me," Tony added, "and it's probably justified. But I couldn't let our transportation and our friends get shot out of the sky. They would have, if they'd lingered. It was tactically the only good choice."

Steve could feel himself shaking now, for all that he was a bit calmer thanks to the physical contact, and wrapped himself bodily around Tony to try to stop it. "We've talked about this," he gritted out, emotion half choking him as worry, fear and relief warred for ascendancy, "we've _talked about the needless risks_ and your apparent need to _get yourself killed_."

"I'm not dead, Steve," Tony told him, one hand coming down to rest at the nape of Steve's neck, gripping the muscle tightly. It was oddly settling.

Steve was pretty sure he lost track of time after that, because the next thing he knew Bucky appeared silently next to them and dropped a large duffel bag onto the ground with a thump and quiet clatter.

Tony jumped, startled. Steve, who'd seen his friend approach, couldn't help the twitch of his lips. "Thought you might have some supplies stashed somewhere."

Bucky picked up Steve's pants and threw them back at him before he bent to rummage in the bag, unashamed of his state of undress. "Some clothes that fit, too."

"What else have you got in your toolkit?" Tony asked, clearly hoping for a radio he could 'borrow'.

"You want to know that, I'll be wanting an answer of my own." Bucky caught Tony's eyes and stared him down.

"That being?"

"He," Bucky nodded at Steve, "used to be bonded to me. After whatever you did with that Pearl, I can feel him again."

"I'm not hearing a question." Tony taunted Bucky, apparently secure enough not to worry too much about this statement's implications. Steve was less sure this was going to end well.

"And if I told you I wasn't going to let you steal him away?" Bucky asked, his tone seemingly idle, but hiding a layer of pure steel. Steve knew Tony could hear it too.

Tony scowled at him. "Then you and I might have a fight on our hands. Steve and I, we've worked for what we have, and I'm notoriously stubborn about the things I consider 'mine.'"

"Tony," Steve tried to interject, but Tony stopped him with a raised hand.

"I'm serious about this, Steve. About us. And you told me you were, too. I'm not about to let anyone just break that apart. Much less on a few hours' notice. No matter what he claims, or you believe."

Bucky gave him a quizzical but amused look. "You know," he replied, still in that same deceptively idle tone, "I meant physical distance. But, now that you mention it, I wouldn't be opposed to exploring the other aspects of this."

Tony stared at him, less certain than he had been before, then turned back to Steve, obviously looking for a cue from him.

Steve wasn't sure he had one to give. "Buck," he said, feeling like he was treading on eggshells, or maybe glass shards, and hoping he didn't cut his feet to ribbons, "we have our bond back, thanks to whatever happened after we left that temple, it's true. But I'm not about to simply throw aside what Tony and I have. Then again, I'm not letting you or Tony convince me that it's better you just walk back out of my life, and that leaves us with a choice to make. The question is: if we do decide to explore the idea of integrating everything... what about the two of you? If that's even going to be an option we talk about, you two will have to work that out."

Tony gave him a startled look, but Bucky's expression made up for that entirely, turning warmer and speculative. "Well, now," Bucky turned to Tony and prowled closer, circling around the two of them, his movements smooth as silk and his eyes intent, and seeming all the more dangerous for still being buck naked, "that's an interesting way to look at it. Did you know that Steve was willing to share, Stark?"

Steve carefully kept quiet, wanting to see what Tony would do.

Tony, it turned out, took his hands off Steve's skin and stood, leaving him feeling a bit bereft, suddenly, and reeling a little in the relative silence. This had not been an easy day, on an emotional level. 

Tony faced Bucky squarely, turning as Bucky circled him, and Steve let them have this. He and Bucky had started out as a pair of young punks on the same side in a brawl, and discovered that way that they resonated together. They'd fallen into synch effortlessly, fighting in perfect tandem, and never let one another out of their sight after that. Well, okay, that was an exaggeration. But the point was solid.

That had lasted until the day Bucky had simply vanished.

Steve hadn't seen any sign of him for several days, but that happened every so often when Bucky went on a particularly difficult hunt, so he hadn't worried. When their bond had started fading, though, feeling a bit like a cut that wouldn't clot, Steve had grabbed a few of his friends and gone out searching Bucky's usual haunts. Their tribe's territory was fairly large, and Bucky's hunts took him throughout all of it, and sometimes a little beyond.

They never found him, though. After a week, the others had given up. After a month, Steve'd had to admit it was likely that Bucky had gotten himself killed somehow. After half a year, he'd stumbled across Tony in the course of one last hopeless search.

But now, somehow, through a series of events he wasn't sure he quite understood yet, he had Bucky back. And it looked like Bucky wanted to follow them back to New York. Seemed to be demanding it.

The tableau broke as Steve finished the thought, and Bucky lunged. Tony danced out of the way with a laugh, his movements almost as smooth as Bucky's. Practiced.

Bucky smirked at him, and tried again. This time, his lunge brought him in range to hook one hand into the waistband of Tony's pants and pull. It sent Tony stumbling against him. Tony, thinking quickly, hooked one foot around Bucky's and used his momentum to send them both to the ground. They popped up, separately, a moment later, and Bucky's grin was back, wider.

"He's almost as good as you, punk," he commented to Steve, confirming a large part of Steve's suspicions.

This would be interesting, to say the least.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've been teasing this for quite a while... hopefully it lives up to expectations. ;)

Steve watched intently as Bucky toyed with Tony some more. It was clear neither of them was out to do more than play and get a feel for the other's style and ability. Unsurprisingly, it made for a good showing. Tony managed to nearly get Bucky pinned, twice, and the second time, Bucky retaliated by putting his organic arm around Tony's neck and pulling him in until they were nose to nose.

Steve bit his lip at the sight.

It was probably premature, but he couldn't get the image of trying this again on the airship to leave him alone. He wanted, though. Wanted to see how this would work out given a bed and time and no pursuit to worry them.

That he was even considering letting Bucky seduce his lover -- and that it was happening almost within sight of the beach and the small cove that was all that stood between them and a firefight -- was really not the smartest thought that he'd ever had. But, on the other hand, damned if it wasn't also one of the hottest.

Tony, who'd held the pose for the second Steve had spent considering their situation, raised an eyebrow at Bucky. "You know," he quipped grinding his hips against Bucky's just to see what reaction he could provoke, "if you're done with the sparring, you could just say so. Not that I'm all that unhappy about this particular position."

Bucky growled at him, sounding rather possessive. "I could tell."

Tony shuddered, and Steve felt a distant echo of his lover's lust over their bond, less intense than sometimes, since they weren't touching. Bucky's shivered through him a heartbeat later, and he returned the gesture with interest, his metallic hand coming down to rest on Tony's behind and hold him in place while he thrust up. Steve had to bite his lip hard not to groan. Tony didn't bother holding back.

Steve hadn't stopped to consider the way their bonds would change if they were all in bed together. Hadn't thought about the way the resonances would shift to accommodate three rather than two.

It was simultaneously wonderful and maddening.

Tony smirked down at Bucky, then, and slid his hands down to Bucky's hips, using his hold to brace himself above Steve's old bondmate. A moment's consideration later, he leaned in and caught Bucky's lips in a kiss.

Steve could tell he'd meant for it to be careful and more or less chaste, but Bucky wasn't having any of that. His hand, still at Tony's nape, tightened, and he deepened the kiss until he had Tony all but writhing against him.

The view was enough to make Steve whine, and belatedly realise just how riled up this was getting him.

Tony glanced at him and smirked, clearly enjoying Steve's reaction. Bucky followed suit, and took the opportunity to roll his hips against Tony again, pulling an indulgent moan out of him.

"Good Christ," Tony gasped out. "Is it always this intense?"

"No idea," Bucky replied. "Wanna find out?"

"You're damned right I do," Tony gritted out, his hands wandering to tweak at Bucky's sensitive skin over hips, flanks, and then nipples. It got a whine out of Bucky that time, and snapped the last thread of Steve's self-control.

A shudder running down his spine, Steve fought to get his salt-encrusted weapons harness and shirt off, swearing at the items when they seemed to fight back, getting tangled around his limbs and fingers instead.

Bucky laughed at him, but took the opportunity to start peeling Tony free of his clothing.

Tony groaned and helped, his fingers nimble on the buttons of his pants and his belt. He hesitated a moment over the buttons of his shirt, and Steve suspected Tony was unsure how Bucky would react to the repulsor pump, but continued opening up his clothing once he'd worked past whatever had caused the hesitation.

Bucky, bless the man, raised an eyebrow at it, but didn't comment beyond a short 'you're telling me about that later.' Steve took the three steps over to join them once he had managed to get free of his own shirt, and let himself fall to his knees beside them.

"You know," he said, "this isn't quite what I had in mind when I said you two needed to discuss things."

"It's so much better, though," Tony shot back, one of his hands coming up to trail along Steve's shoulder to his neck and wander up into his hairline. "Don't you think?"

Bucky laughed. "I'm with him on this, Steve. And I've gotta say. Resonance isn't as strong as it was with you, but this guy," his hands tweaked at Tony's skin, high on the backs of Tony's thighs, "he's not a bad match."

"Wait," Tony stared at him, incredulous. "That was your test? Sparring?"

"Worked out pretty well for us the first time," Bucky shot back.

Tony gave Steve a disbelieving look then turned back to Bucky. "Are you serious, right now?"

"Oh, I'm serious," Bucky purred, grinding against Tony again and sending a shock of lust echoing back and forth between the three of them, jumping from them to Steve and back again.

Steve groaned deep in his chest and leaned in to kiss Bucky, who fell into the touch like he was a parched man presented with a cold drink. 

Their bond shivered to life between them making the sensations ricochet back and forth between them until everything seemed to spill over, like a tide rushing over a barrier reef, to flood over Tony, who twitched like a hooked fish between them.

Eventually Bucky broke the kiss and used a warm forefinger under Steve's chin to turn him toward Tony, as though asking them to kiss.

Tony didn't hesitate. He latched onto Steve as though it was the last time he'd have the chance to, and kissed him deeply. The resonance built between them again until it spilled over, this time to Bucky, who groaned quietly and ground up against Tony again, coming messily all over himself.

Steve, caught off guard by the wash of warmth and ecstasy that flooded their bond, couldn't help but follow him over the edge they were treading. Tony held out a beat longer, but Bucky put a stop to that. He reached up to take Tony in hand and Steve smirked. He took advantage of the distraction Bucky was offering him to bring his hand up to trail it down the length of Tony's spine and down between his legs to tease at the sensitive skin around his opening. It did nothing so much as hint and tease, but Tony bit his lip, hard, and came with a strangled gasp, shaking in their arms with the force of it.


	15. Chapter 15

It took Tony and Bucky what seemed like a long time to bother moving from their positions, sprawled across one another on the ground. Steve had made a face at the sticky feeling of the come on his skin and lingered less, the need to clean himself off soon becoming too much for him.

That turned out to be the urge that saved all of their behinds. While they'd indulged themselves, the cruiser had loomed nearer and nearer, until it was passing within half a klick of their little island sanctuary.

Steve thanked every god he'd ever heard of that he'd realised that before he'd wandered out into the open, mostly unsuspecting and still drifting somewhat on the sensation of their new bond. Turning away from the beach with a string of curses, he hurried back to their clearing. 

Tony and Bucky both looked up at him, startled, when he came back into view.

"We're out of time, aren't we," Tony guessed, sounding utterly unsurprised.

Bucky wrapped his hands around Tony's hips and lifted him up bodily until he could set Tony on his knees at his side. "Seems that way," he agreed, sitting up and reaching for his duffel bag.

Steve took his cue from that motion and started hauling his clothes -- thankfully more or less dry, meantime -- back on. He grimaced at having to pull them on over the mess he'd made of himself, then set the thought aside as best he could.

When he glanced back up at Tony, his lover was pulling his pants back up over his hips. Steve spared the barest moment to lament that Tony had to cover all that lovely skin, then shook the thoughts off and caught Bucky's attention. "Now would be a good time to tell us what you've brought with you other than clothes."

Bucky's smirk went wicked.

He dug in the duffel then handed Tony a pistol, along with a substantial amount of ammunition. "Pretty sure you know how to use one of these."

"Uh," Tony blinked at it, then grinned, loaded the gun, and shoved it through his belt. "Yeah, you could say that."

Bucky grinned back at him. "C'mere, Steve," he invited, turning back to his bag and rummaging through its contents. He pulled a black vest that looked like it had far too many buckles on its front out of the bag and tossed it at him. "Pretty sure you'll need this more than I do, with your habit of running towards a fight instead of away."

Steve turned it over in his hands. "What is this thing?"

It was Tony that answered, eyeing Bucky like he desperately wanted to know how Bucky had gotten his hands on one of these things. "What it is, Steve, is experimental. Body armour that ought to block bullets."

"Then you should take it," Steve decided.

Bucky gave him a long unreadable look, but didn't object verbally. "I only have one of those, Steve," he replied, more or less evenly. "You gonna promise me you won't get yourself hurt?"

"You know I can't promise that, Buck." Steve caught his eyes and put a hand carefully on Bucky's whole shoulder. "But I heal quickly. You know that."

Bucky sighed, the sound long-suffering and a bit pained. "That's not the point," he grumbled, but gave in and started arming himself. "Are we trying to get on the ship or get away from it?" 

Tony considered that for a moment, then exchanged a look with Steve. "Both?"

"Both," Steve agreed. "Our chances are best if we can disable the guns and engines, then scram."

Bucky grumbled but went along with the plan. "Great, now I have two of you idiots to keep in one piece?"

Tony laughed at him. "Oh, don't you worry, Bucky-bear. I'm good at getting out of scrapes like this. And this time I have someone at my back."

"He's not a bear," Steve pointed out, as straight-faced as he could manage.

That got him a growl that might have disproved his statement, had Tony not been giving him a look that said he wasn't sure how Steve could joke at both their expense.

"Let's get moving," Bucky suggested, shoving a second pistol into Steve's hands, "before I give in to the urge to strangle you both."

Steve grinned, taking it carefully, and leaned in to kiss him. "We'll be fine. Come on."

"With a bit of luck, the hell we raise will get Jarvis' attention or Pepper's," Tony offered. "I'd lay odds they're watching the area pretty closely right about now. When we'll want to aim for a spot a klick ahead of the cruiser, and wait for it. No use chasing that thing. When we get aboard, there will be about 250 men aboard and ten artillery pieces we have to deal with[8]. Two near the front of the ship, six near the middle, and two more at the rear. Most of the men will be below decks, and will probably stay there, luckily for us."

Bucky nodded, accepting that, then stomped off toward the beach, clipping more things onto his belt as he walked. "Guns first, then."

"First we have to get to the ship without them noticing us," Tony pointed out.

"You can leave your clothes on and shift. We'll follow," Steve offered. "If they're still reasonably close to shore, we ought to be able to manage that swim without shifting."

Tony gave him a long measuring look that clearly said he doubted the truth of that statement. Steve gave him a push to get him moving. "Doubt me later. Swim now, while the cruiser's side isn't facing the cove and making us easy to spot."

Still obviously dubious, Tony reluctantly followed orders without a word. He slipped into the water lapping at the beach head, and made quickly for deeper water, where he could take advantage of the changes the shift brought on. Steve followed him closely, and felt Bucky do the same.

They followed Tony back through the opening in the reef and out into open waters, patiently allowing him to check on them as they went. It was endearing to know he worried about them like that.

After he checked on them for the fifth time, though, Bucky got tired of it and grabbed him around the waist, one hand sneaking under Tony's shirt to touch skin, and Steve felt more than a hint of reassurance through their bond. He followed suit, careful to keep them moving and in the right direction. He could swim for almost a klick without coming up for air, if he had to, and didn't doubt Bucky could do the same.

As they swam, the throb of the cruiser's propellers and the rumble of its engines grew louder and louder, seeming to fill the water around them. They pulled up short in the water, at a position roughly a hundred meters ahead of the large ship, and Bucky reached for something on his belt.

It turned out to be a grappling hook, and Steve had to work to hold back the savage grin that tugged at his lips.

\------

[8] For reference, I'm using [this cruiser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Amazone) as my template. It's got [105mm guns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10.5_cm_SK_L/40_naval_gun) and a reasonable amount of horsepower. And, as you've probably guessed, the number of men aboard is also a thing I looked up.


	16. Chapter 16

Steve made sure Tony preceded him up the line once Bucky had secured it, and they'd had a chance to get over the resulting jerk that had felt like it might dislocate Steve's arm. Bucky only waited long enough to make sure that they were both holding the line, then silently started climbing hand over hand, using the line to let him 'walk' up the side of the cruiser's hull. He paused when he reached the line's anchor point, wrapped around the railing of the main deck at a point not far from the pair of forward guns, and waited for them to catch up to him.

Steve watched as Tony followed Bucky up, using the same climbing technique, then did the same himself, once he was sure Tony had a secure grip on something. When Steve was about three meters from the top, Bucky nodded and vaulted over the railing along the edge of the deck.

A shout went up, and Tony caught Steve's eyes for a moment before he started shooting without bothering to follow Bucky up onto the deck. Not about to let Bucky have all the fun, Steve took that as his cue to join him while Tony gave them covering fire.

It didn't take them too long to clear out the area of the ship around the forward guns and disable them, but that was as far as they got before the rest of the ship's crew rallied and the bullets began flying. Tony joined them on the deck then, careful to keep low, keeping his profile as small as he could manage.

Bucky paused for a beat to reload his gun, then calmly ducked around to the other side of the large artillery emplacement to keep their enemies from flanking them. Once he was settled, he went back to ensuring the men attacking them continued dropping, clutching parts of their anatomy. Steve was vaguely relieved to see that none of them were dead, even as he followed suit on the other side of the ship.

Tony spent his time picking off anyone he could, and trying to work out the best way to get... somewhere. Steve heard him muttering something about a 'conning tower'[9]. Whatever that was. It sounded important.

Rather than worry about it, Steve turned his attention back to the fight, taking advantage of a break in the waves of men that had been coming at them to move towards the set of three guns that were his next target. He could almost feel Bucky doing the same on the other side of the ship, and Tony supporting them both.

When they reached the second set of guns, Tony seemed to appear at Steve's elbow out of nowhere. He picked off a man perched high up on the ship who was aiming at them. "Steve," he said urgently, "if we can get to the tower to our left, we can beach the ship. Run her aground, and leave her there. No need to go after the engines and use up all our ammunition. There's also a radio up there."

"Does Bucky know about this plan of yours?" Steve asked, as he bent to jam some of the contents of a nearby toolbox into the workings of the system used to aim the gun then start the mechanism working. 

Tony winced. "No, but--"

"Tell him," Steve cut Tony off, and paused to shoot at a man trying to get the drop on them by flanking them. "I'll deal with these guns."

"But you--" Tony tried again.

"Tony, go!" Steve hissed at him, scooping another handful of steel wrenches out of the toolbox and darting forward to take cover behind the next gun as he disabled that one the same way. "We need to tell Bucky the plan's changed."

Giving in, Tony turned to face the narrow pathway between the two sets of guns set midships, and then sprang forward, trying to make sure he was out in the open as little as possible.

It almost worked, too.

He was nearly in the shelter of the next piece of cover when everything went sideways. With a pained shout, Tony stumbled and went down. Steve got a sensation of impact and tearing pain across the bond, and would have fallen to the deck had he been standing upright, rather than crouched. As it was, he fell to his hands and knees, fighting to breathe past whatever was making his throat feel tight, and a wash of red rage came down over him.

Distantly, he felt Bucky go still and silent over the bond, and then the explosions started.

Bucky must have had some grenades, Steve guessed, not that he particularly cared right now, as long as his two partners came through this alive. Getting back to his feet and using the last of his ammunition to clear the area of enemies, Steve hurried across the deck to Tony, and scooped him up, carrying him to the shelter of the next piece of machinery, and getting a pained grunt for his efforts. The smell of blood hit him like a hammer, right between the eyes, in a way it hadn't until now.

"I'm--" Tony broke off mid sentence to take a harsh gasping breath, "I'm fine, Steve."

"I don't believe you." Steve glared at him and started checking him over. The armour Bucky had given him had kept his torso clear of wounds, but his left shirt sleeve was quickly staining red.

"No, Steve," Tony managed. "Try not to move it too much. If you have anything to wrap it with, do that, and then we need to keep moving."

Another explosion, much closer, this time, heralded Bucky's appearance. He looked almost blank, though more than a hint of worry and fear appeared when he spotted them. "Steve!"

Steve looked up from Tony and scanned the area, but for the moment they were alright. "Bucky," he replied, more or less evenly. "He's got a bullet wound in his upper left arm, and there's been a change of plans. We're heading for the control room. Tony said something about a conning tower and a radio."

\------

[9] The [conning tower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conning_tower) \-- not to be confused with the [bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_\(nautical\)) \-- is the highest point of the ship and the point from which the officers of a vessel would direct it, basically. The conning tower was pretty much exclusively used during battle, whereas the bridge was used at all other times, and this practice continued right up through the WWII era. They contained very little in the way of instruments and other equipment, due to their size -- which was tiny -- and typically held two to three officers, a means of communicating with the engine room, and very little else. I'm taking a bit of a historical liberty, here, by cramming in a radio.


	17. Chapter 17

With a decisive nod, Bucky turned to face the way he'd come. "This way. Bring him."

He led Steve about ten meters back toward the front of the ship, then paused to open a hatch door set into the side of the superstructure. It opened on a dimly lit stairwell and Bucky didn't hesitate. He stepped aside, shoved Steve through, then followed, closing the door behind them. "If this backfires, we'll be trapped in here," he warned, "but it’s also the most defensible position aboard. I'm staying here. You carry him up."

Steve nodded, and ignored Tony's halfhearted protests. "Tony, shut up," he hushed his lover. "They'll hear us coming."

Tony grumbled something under his breath but acceded. He took the pistol into his other hand, reloaded it, and then nodded back. "Alright," he muttered, "let's go."

They had to duck behind cover at the last switchback turn of the staircase as bullets flew past them to ricochet wildly off of thick steel plating. Steve felt two hit the vest Tony was wearing, and was very glad for the thing. Tony would have some deep bruises, but nothing more.

Stepping around Tony, he ducked to the side just long enough to glance at the doorway at the top of the stairs, and return some fire of his own. Tony slid in between his legs and the wall and joined in. There were three loud shouts in different voices, and then silence reigned.

Cautiously, Steve dared to look around the corner more carefully, exposing himself to whatever fire might still come at them, but none did.

"You get them?" Bucky called from below.

"Think so," Tony answered. "Going to check now."

"Hurry up," Bucky demanded. "Lots of people want to join the party."

Tony hurried. Steve hurried after him, and the sight that met their eyes was more or less what they'd expected. Three officers, appearing to be the highest ranked, lay sprawled on the floor, bleeding. One of them was attempting to get to the radio despite not being able to stand or move his leg much, due to the bullet lodged in his thigh.

Tony put a stop to that, posthaste. "Don't even think about it," he growled. "I'm borrowing that."

While Tony radioed Jarvis and Pepper, Steve kept a wary eye on the officers, ignoring the conversation to focus on keeping Tony safe. It was bad enough that he'd been injured in the first place.

Tony, for his part, took the opportunity to do just what he'd suggested, and turned the large ship right toward another uninhabited island. Steve could feel the ship's heading changing and see the little squares of sunlight from the tiny windows sliding across the conning tower walls.

"Come on," he told Steve about a minute later, "leave them. We've got a plane to catch."

By the time they got down to the bottom of the conning tower stairs, the first groans and shudders of the ship hitting reef could be heard, as well as the startled shouts of the men outside.

Tony grinned at Bucky when they got to him, ignoring his labored breathing and bad arm as best he could. "We're done here. Time to get the hell off this boat."

"About time." Bucky grumbled in return as Steve steadied Tony with an arm around his lover's waist. "Contacted your friends?"

"They're en route. ETA four minutes. Since all but the aft guns[10] are disabled, they can come pick us up right from the deck." Tony gestured to the hatch door as he patted Steve's arm with his good hand in an attempt to be comforting. "How's the situation outside?"

"No idea, but they stopped trying to break in about ten seconds ago." Bucky said, sounding like he didn't trust the situation one bit.

"Got any grenades?" Steve suggested.

"Only one." Bucky raised an eyebrow at him.

"Wait two minutes, then toss it out and shut the door after it," Tony suggested. 

Bucky nodded, and Steve took hold of the round handwheel[11] keeping the door secured. Turning it would be out of the question for Tony. Tony took up a position behind Bucky, his gun loaded and pointed toward the floor, his finger off the trigger and his hand relaxed. His other hand had found its way to Bucky's shoulder. He looked like he was waiting for his turn at a practice range.

Once the appointed two minutes had gone by, Steve quickly opened the hatch door. Tony took two shots through the narrow opening, and Bucky lobbed the grenade, then the door was shut again, and Steve was leaning against it as a chorus of startled shouts went up outside. The explosion reverberated slightly in the enclosed conning tower, the harmonic threatening to give Steve a headache and make his ears ring, but when they cautiously stepped outside, they only had to deal with one or two men. The rest were likely still manning their posts in the engine room or the ship's magazine[12] or whatever else.

A sharp report from the far side of the ship had them craning their necks.

Tony whooped loudly. "That'll be the cavalry. Come on, boys."

Sure enough, Steve recognised the buzz of the airship's engines, now, and moments later, the War Machine armour landed on the deck of the ship. "Get aboard, Tony," Jarvis told him, then paused. "Don't tell me you've picked up another stray."

"You could say that," Tony agreed. "I'll tell you the full story later."

"Damned right, you will."

Without another word, Jarvis turned to the task of disabling the remaining guns, and Tony gestured to the rope-and-bar ladder that appeared, almost as if conjured, in front of them. "Gentlemen. After you."

Steve scowled darkly at him. "I think not. Buck, help me strap him to my chest. He can't climb up to the airship with one arm."

"Uh," Tony interjected. "Not true. They can haul the ladder up with me on it?"

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Shut up and let Steve help you."

His voice held a distinct note of 'or else.' Tony eyed him for a few seconds, blithely ignoring the shooting and explosions that accompanied Jarvis' destruction of the last two artillery guns, then gave in. "Fine. But we're having a long talk about the coddling later."

Steve caught Bucky's eyes. That discussion was not likely to go in Tony's favor.

\------

[10] Just for reference I'm including a diagram of the [shipboard directions](http://www.photographers1.com/Sailing/ShipboardDirections.gif), for those less familiar with how things on boats are called.

[11] So [handwheels](http://www.webberswarships.ca/styled-9/files/valve-handwheel-colors.png) are those large "doorknobs" sometimes seen on bank vaults, and, more often, on shipboard doors that need to seal tightly, like submarine hatches. Alternatively, they can be used to control the flowrates through valves.

[12] The [ship's magazine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine_\(artillery\)) is where ammunition for its guns was stored.


	18. Chapter 18

It took some effort not to check on Tony every few moments as he climbed. They'd gotten Tony to wrap his good arm and his legs around Steve, and, once they were satisfied that he'd be secure enough, they'd started climbing.

Pepper had watched them from the top of the ladder and started it retracting as they ascended, speeding the process. Steve, climbing nimbly up the ladder with Bucky hard on his heels, spared a moment to give her a grin.

"Thank God, you're alright," she told him as she stopped the ladder retracting.

"I'm offended," Tony shot back. "I'm always alright."

"No, you're not," Steve told him as he climbed the last two meters, hand over hand. "But we can deal with that once we get you to the infirmary."

"He get himself hurt again?" Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why am I not surprised."

"Hey! I was doing the best I damned well could," Tony protested.

Bucky snorted at their bickering, but kept his silence.

The sound drew Pepper's attention, despite his attempt to remain in the background. "And who might you be?" she asked, eying him warily.

Steve had to admit, Bucky probably looked rather intimidating in his gear, even if he had sacrificed the armour in favor of making one of them wear it.

"That's Bucky," Steve told her, and had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes go wide in surprise. "And apparently he's not as dead as I thought."

Bucky punched his shoulder, pulling the blow, but gave him the stink eye. "Yeah, we're talking about that some more later," he replied, before he turned to Pepper. "Charmed, I'm sure," he told her, offering his right hand, "but I didn't catch your name."

"Call me Pepper." She shook the offered hand, then took Tony, who'd been watching the exchange with a very pleased expression, by the collar. "You, though," she went on, "you're going directly to the infirmary and letting Rhodes patch you up well enough that it'll hold until Jarvis can do it properly."

Steve nodded, backing her up. "Listen to the lady."

Rhodey hollered something at them about taking the helm, and Steve decided he could leave Tony in Pepper's capable hands.

"Buck, I'm taking over for Rhodey. You coming with me or staying with Tony?" Bucky gave Pepper a long look, trying to get a feel for the way they all treated one another. Steve could see the calculating gleam in his eyes, for all that his expression stayed pleasant and mostly neutral. Watching them to see if she became a threat to him or to Steve, most likely. Or possibly to Tony.

Steve didn't say a word; Bucky would learn.

"Staying here," Bucky eventually said.

"On my way, Rhodey," Steve called back, before he returned his attention to Bucky. "Keep an eye on Tony, then?"

"Obviously."

Pepper huffed, and took that as her cue to haul Tony's good arm over her shoulders and hook an arm around his waist. "Alright, come on," she grumbled. "Let's go. You're weaving on your feet."

Bucky seemed to teleport, and then he was taking up Tony's weight on his other side, carefully avoiding the injured arm.

Steve watched them turn the corner then sprinted up to the helm. He'd kept Rhodey waiting long enough.

"Oh, good," Rhodey said sardonically when he came into view, "you didn't forget about me."

"As if you'd let me." Steve carefully hip checked him away from the wheel. "Go patch up the idiot. I'll keep her steady until Jarvis gets back aboard."

"Shouldn't be long," Rhodey told him. "War Machine just radioed that he'd be ready for pick up in about five minutes."

"Good."

With a nod, Rhodey hurried out of the room.

The helm was too quiet once he'd left, only the low rumble of the airship's engines breaking the silence. The cruiser below was well and truly crippled, meantime. Steve could see from his position on the bridge that Jarvis had not only rather vindictively destroyed the remaining artillery emplacements, but also put a hole in the hull near the stern.

"Rhodes!" Jarvis' voice came over the radio. "Now would be a good time for a pick up!"

"Aye aye," Steve replied in Rhodey's place, hitting the switch to open the bay doors in the airship's cargo bay floor and activate the winch to drop the harness. "Coming right up."

"Steve," Jarvis acknowledged him gruffly. "You get him patched up?"

"Rhodes is working on it. Pepper and Bucky are making sure he holds still long enough." Steve replied. "Holler when you're ready for retrieval."

"Ready now. Haul me up, and set a heading north northeast."

"Copy."

Steve flipped the first switch back into its 'off' position, then started the winch that would raise the armour up into the storage bay. The system was automated, so he didn't need to do anything more. Just wait as it brought the War Machine armour back up into the belly of the airship, and maneuver very carefully -- if at all -- until Jarvis was situated. Luckily for Steve's nerves, the system was quick to operate, and took less than a minute to run to completion.

Steve spent the time considering what they would need to do to safeguard the Pearl -- besides keep the news that they actually had it as quiet as possible -- in an attempt to distract himself from the knowledge that Jarvis would be patching up one of his lovers and confronting the other. There was a good chance that could go sideways, Steve admitted to himself with a wince. He kept getting distracted from his attempt to distract himself, though.

The mix of wariness and concern that hit him in waves, coming from Bucky, and the echoes of pain that Tony occasionally let slip were very effective at pulling Steve's thoughts right back to the thing he was trying not to think about.

Rhodey's hand landing on his shoulder startled him out of his thoughts, and Steve almost jumped out of his skin.

"On a bit of a hair trigger, aren't you," Rhodey teased him. "Go put the boss to bed so he doesn't annoy us into pitching him back overboard. And take that other stray you rescued with you. He seems to be as good as you at getting Mr. Stark to take care of himself."

Steve gratefully turned the helm back over to Rhodey. "You got it."

Pepper, who'd entered the bridge of the airship just in time to hear the last couple of sentences, laughed. "Go spend some time with Mr. Stark and that new friend you've brought aboard."


	19. Chapter 19

It took him a few false starts, but Steve eventually found Tony and Bucky tangled together on the bed in Tony's cabin, after checking the infirmary and the galley. He slipped silently through the door and closed it behind him, enjoying Bucky's knowing smirk and Tony's startled jump when he seemed to materialise in the room.

"Come on, Steve," Tony complained at him, "you know I have a heart condition."

Bucky snorted. "Not anymore, you don't."

That got Tony's attention immediately, but in a skeptical sort of way. "Excuse me? How the hell would you know that?"

Steve definitely wanted to know the answer to that, himself. He took the few steps over to the free side of the bed, stretching out in the open space there, and wormed his arms between the two of them, taking comfort in the feelings of skin on skin and closeness. Tony wasn't wearing a shirt, due to Rhodey's and Jarvis' efforts, though Bucky was still in most of his gear. 

Bucky shrugged and put his right hand over Tony's mostly intact sternum. "I can feel it. Can't you?"

The words were casual, as though they had no weight whatsoever, but they fell into the room like rocks dropped into a still pool. Tony went tense, and Steve felt more than a hint of fear through their bond. "What?"

Steve tucked Tony closer against him, hoping to comfort his lover. It worked, though not as well as he'd hoped. Tony relaxed against him slightly, his own hand coming up to peel Bucky's off his chest, uncomfortable with having it there. Bucky promptly laced their fingers together instead, not letting Tony break contact. "You were unsteady after whatever you did with that Pearl," Bucky went on, his tone carefully level and his expression calm despite the nervousness Steve could feel. Knew Tony could feel.

Then the words registered and Steve blinked. It took him a moment to think back and try to pick confirmation out of his memories of what had happened. He hadn't paid attention to Tony's physiology at the time, more focused on keeping Tony and Bucky from attacking one another.

"But once we got to shore," Bucky added quietly, "it started subsiding."

"Steve?" Tony's voice was as tightly controlled as Bucky's but Steve could hear and feel the flash of wild hope that had speared Tony to the heart. "Is that true?"

Steve took a deep breath to buy himself time to gather his thoughts before he answered. "I'm not sure," he said after a beat, "I was more concerned with keeping everyone in control of themselves until we could get away from that cruiser. It's possible; you do feel a lot steadier now."

The hard shudder that went through Tony made Steve hold him tighter, and Bucky sit up to strip off his shirt so he could join them properly. Once he got his arms around Tony, and found contact with Steve, they settled into a tangled heap, sprawled across the bed, and offering whatever comfort was needed to whoever needed it.

It took several long minutes before Tony spoke again, breaking the building silence, his voice a lot calmer, though quiet, and his meaning clear for all that he left everything implied. "Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for a way to fix that?"

Bucky huffed at him. "You know I don't."

Steve pressed a kiss to Tony's nape and buried his nose in the soft hair behind Tony's ear. "I can guess, but it's different if you're the one who's lived it."

Tony shuddered again, but it was like watching him let something go that he'd been clutching to him for a long time. His voice wavered over the next few words. "You got that right, pal."

Another silence fell over them. Steve could feel Tony processing the new information, trying to come to terms with it, and Bucky watching in a distant sort of wonder. 

"Will my memories ever come back," Bucky asked aloud a few long seconds later. "What the hell did you even do?"

"No idea if they will," Tony told him. "But you've got the important ones already, right? What I did..." Tony's voice trailed off into silence for a moment before he continued. "I'm not entirely sure what I did, or how I did it. It was as much the Pearl as me, as weird and disturbing as that sounds. It... I think it's meant to heal people."

Steve caught Bucky's eyes. "Setting aside Tony's personal miracle for a second," he said, "I don't care if you never remember, or you decide you don't want to pursue this triadic bond after all. I'm just glad I have you back."

That pulled a wry smile out of Bucky. "Are you kidding me with the noble sacrifice crap, Steve? Shut up. What the did we just decide on that island?"

Tony huffed. "Contrary to popular belief, Steve," he added, anger in his voice but not in the bond, "I don't hop into bed with just anyone. I have a very specific physical weakness that makes trust kind of difficult to maintain in those kinds of situations. Well. _Had_ , apparently. But I'm not sure I believe that yet."

Hiding his face in Tony's skin, Steve tried to bite back his smile and failed. "How did I get this lucky?"

Tony snorted. "Same way we did, probably. Can't speak for your friend, here, but we've worked for this, and it might make me sound greedy but I see no reason to give it up now."

"I'm with Stark," Bucky told him, exasperation clear in his voice this time. "Now, you gonna tell me how the hell he has fish scales when he's supposed to be pure human?"

Steve choked on the laugh that tried to bubble up out of him. "He _was_ pure human, until we bonded. Took a while for the scales and fins to appear."

Tony looked caught between speculation and intrigued interest. "Hm. Come to think of it. Does that mean I'll get Bucky's abilities too, if we go through with this?"

Bucky leered at him. "That wouldn't be a hardship. And the way Steve and I both heal fast, maybe someday you could even get rid of that plate in your chest."

"Come here, then," Tony said jokingly, reaching out. The bond between the three of them was filled with a chaotic mix of nagging pain, hope, elation, want, relief, disbelief, and a few other things so muddled Steve couldn't even begin to put names to them. "If there's a chance of that, I'm never letting you out of bed."

Steve's eyes caught Bucky's, and he could tell Bucky saw right through the joking tone. Catching Tony's injured arm at the elbow, Steve stopped him from moving it. "Oh no, you don't. Don't move that arm. I'll hold you down if I have to."

Tony laughed, not bothering to hide the jolt that the action sent through him. "Oh? You still have some hidden depths, do you? I might have to start calling you Captain."

The thought -- that Tony would be willing to let him have control in name and fact rather than simply take it, no matter how careful he was about doing so -- sent a wave of heat through Steve, and he leaned in to kiss the air right out of Tony.

Bucky laughed at him. "You like that idea, eh, Steve? You always did enjoy being in charge."

Steve gave Bucky a long level look. "Not that you ever let me indulge that often," he retorted, his tone mild.

Tony was watching them both carefully. "Okay, that's a thought worth lingering over."

Bucky smirked at Steve, and took charge. "You hold him down, so he doesn't make that injury worse," he suggested, "I want to explore."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Tony asked, sounding like he didn't mind the idea in the least. The anticipation starting to take over Tony's side of their bond made Bucky leer at him. 

"Sure you do," Bucky replied, "but we all know you're not about to bother objecting."

Steve wrapped his hands around Tony's arms, pinning both to the mattress at the elbow. Tony's hands went around his forearms in response, using him as an anchor point, when Bucky took advantage of the move to lean in and kiss Tony. 

"He loves it when you bite at his neck and shoulders," Steve offered.

"That defeats the point of exploring, Steve," Bucky told him, breaking the kiss momentarily to reply, "stop helping."

Tony's hands squeezed the muscle of Steve's forearms as Bucky went right back to what he was doing.

When Bucky broke the kiss properly, Tony didn't move for several long moments, staring up at the ceiling, dazed. Steve leaned in and took over, getting a muffled groan out of Tony in response as the bond flared between them, feeling like a river about to jump its banks.

While Steve kept Tony occupied, Bucky slid his hands down Tony's chest and around to his sides, making Tony twitch and gasp. Bucky chuckled at his reactions, and lingered for a while in the spot along Tony's ribs that had gotten him the best reaction. He didn't linger long, though, choosing to repeat the movements with lips, teeth, and tongue, rather than rely only on his fingers, deft as they were.

The feeling of lust that shuddered through Tony when Bucky's teeth closed around a nipple made Steve groan loudly. He never tired of that sensation, and it was even better now that he could feel Bucky's enjoyment as well, even if it was somewhat subtler and more layered than Tony's. 

After another few seconds, Steve broke their kiss so Tony could attempt to catch his breath. For his part, Steve took the opportunity to shift his weight on the bed so that he was lying next to Tony instead of kneeling behind Tony's head. It meant shifting his grip on Tony's arms so that he could pin one to the bed beside him and reach around Bucky to pin the other, and left them all pressed tightly together. The change in position got a high keening sound out of Bucky as the contact between them made their side of the bond flare with warmth and emotion.

They paused together for a heartbeat after that, in a moment that felt like the last deep breath before a dive, and then Bucky was sliding down Tony's body, settling his hips between Tony's knees and using the weight of his upper body to keep Tony pinned to the bed.

Tony tried to buck upwards, to get more contact, and failed, caught by Steve's hands around his arms and Bucky's body weight. "Steve, oh God. Bucky," he gritted out, "more!"

"Don't worry, you'll get it." Bucky laughed at him indulgently, but it was clear he was reaching the limits of his own patience. Steve knew he wouldn't last much longer, either.

Without another word, Bucky peeled Tony's pants and underwear down off his hips and ducked his head, licking a long, slow stripe up the underside of Tony's cock, as he freed it from its confines. 

"Shit," Tony yelped. "I'm not gonna last long if you keep that up."

"Don't hold back," Bucky told him, a very self-satisfied expression on his face as he looked up at Tony, and caught Tony's eyes as he took the head of Tony's cock into his mouth.

The move tore a strangled cry out of Tony and Steve couldn't help the way he ground his own hard cock against the bed, in a desperate bid for friction. He let go of Tony's uninjured arm, watching briefly as Tony took advantage of the chance to bury his hand in Bucky's hair, then reached down to tug Tony's leg out, spreading him wide, and reveling in the shock of arousal that drew from both his lovers.

"Steve, oh," Tony managed to say, "come on, more. I'm so close."

Before Steve could do anything about it, though, Bucky brought his right hand down between Tony's legs, touching and teasing with his fingertips, then swallowed him down properly.

Tony tensed hard and cried out, shoved over the edge and into orgasm.

Bucky held his position until he was sure Tony was wrung dry, getting several strong aftershocks out of Tony in the process, before pulling off and raising his head to meet Steve's eyes. "Well, Captain," Bucky teased as Tony slumped down to the bed, looking like he'd need a few minutes to recover enough to speak, "now what?" 

"Well," Steve replied, drawing out the word, "if we had access to a bath big enough, I'd say I wanted at least two of your arms in me, suckers and all, while I took Tony," he paused to watch both his lovers’ eyes go wide, "but sadly we don't. So I suppose I can settle for your fingers and your cock."

Moving with a synchronicity that Steve hadn't experienced in far too long, they settled Tony against the headboard of the bed, off to one side of the middle, his injured arm supported on a pile of pillows, and his legs comfortably crossed at the ankles.

Steve caught Tony's eyes, holding them, "Do as you like, but don't move that arm," he told his lover. "If you want more, let us know."

Tony waited him out for a few seconds, then nodded, still looking a trifle dazed. "I'll need a minute, in any case," he said, agreeable.

The moment Bucky deemed Tony settled enough, he pounced, tumbling Steve to the mattress and making Steve laugh at him, enjoying his lover's eagerness.

"It's been too damned long since I could get my hands on you," Bucky breathed in his ear as his hands, metal and flesh alike, skated up Steve's back. "I've missed this something fierce, even if I didn't know I did until today."

Steve shivered when Bucky's right hand buried itself in his hair, scratching lightly at his scalp just the way he loved, and brought up his hands to pin Bucky against him by his hips. He took advantage of the leverage it gave him to thrust up, rubbing himself against Bucky, and got an almost pained whine out of his lover.

Bucky retaliated by ducking his head and biting at Steve's neck, just the way he remembered.

The sensations shooting through him made all the tension leak right out of his muscles as it slowly began to really sink in that _he had Bucky back_ , leaving him limp and gasping on the mattress with Bucky's smug satisfaction washing over him like a warm summer tide.

When Tony reached out with his good hand to finger-comb his hair, Steve whined, wanting more. "Buck, come on," he said, hearing the rasp in his voice. Flinging a hand out to pull open the drawer of the small nightstand beside the bed, he fumbled inside it until he found what he wanted and shoved it closed again. Pouring some of the lube onto his hand, he reached down and took Bucky in hand without bothering to tease, "Bucky, I want more."

Bucky all but collapsed on top of him, lying there for a long moment and pinning Steve's arm between their stomachs. "Steve, if you do that, I won't last long enough to give you what you want," Bucky told him in between gulps of air.

"Then do it!" Steve shoved the lube into Bucky's free hand, and went back to trying to goad his lover into doing more than teasing.

Abrupt as ice cracking, Bucky gave in, his control breaking; he didn't hesitate, pouring some lube onto his fingers and sliding down Steve's body until he could start pushing them inside.

He hadn't done this often with Tony, and not for a long while. The stretch stung and Steve knew he would feel this for hours, but he didn't care. If anything, the thought spurred him on, making him demand more. "Yes, Bucky, go on, like that," he said, his voice a high pitched whine and his hands clenching hard around Tony's sheets, "come on, harder. I want you to make me come and then get inside me and get me hard again."

Bucky growled at him, the sound possessive, and gave him what he wanted, adding two more fingers in quick succession, stretching him just enough that Bucky could drive his fingers all the way in.

Tony's hand, still in his hair, clenched tight, and the pull on his scalp made Steve's back bow.

Bucky's mouth taking him in, swallowing him down, was the last straw; Steve jackknifed, the sensation too much for his control, and came with Bucky's name caught in his throat.

Tony's hand was still in his hair, though it was shaking ever so slightly, when Steve came back to himself enough to notice the mess he'd made. Bucky's fingers were still buried deep inside him, and Steve stretched, enjoying the feeling of having them there.

The silence between them held for another minute or so, while Bucky allowed him to enjoy the afterglow, but then he began working Steve right back up again with a smirk.

"Ready for more, Captain?" He asked, mock-solicitous, as the clever fingers he'd left inside Steve started stretching and teasing him again, making Steve squirm.

"Bucky! Oh stars!" Steve bit down on his lower lip to hold back the whine he could feel building in his throat, as Bucky latched onto the skin at the side of Steve's neck with his teeth. He was using just enough pressure to make Steve's eyes flutter shut and his cock twitch.

Tony laughed at him, caught between amusement and arousal, by the sound of it. "Hey, Bucky," he called quietly, immediately getting both their attention. "Think we could persuade him to take both of us at once?"

"Well," Bucky grinned broadly, and pretended to consider it, crooking his fingers slightly and pulling a groan out of Steve. "I don't know. Steve?"

The idea sent another interested twitch through him. "What--" his voice caught in his throat and he had to clear it before he could continue. "What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking that maybe you might like taking it from Bucky and swallowing me down as you do." Tony paused and Steve swallowed against the way his mouth went dry at the thought. After a beat, Tony went on, speaking to Bucky that time. "We could also try to take him together, but we'd have to prepare for that a little. Work him wide open and keep him that way until it doesn't hurt when we make him take both our cocks."

Bucky's head fell to Steve's shoulder, at those words. "You've got a way with words, Stark."

Tony huffed at him. "I'm not accustomed to having my bed partners use my last name, sweetheart," he shot back. "Do that again and I'll have to take my revenge."

Steve raised an eyebrow at Tony, but Bucky quickly distracted him again, raising his head and using his left hand to tweak at Steve's skin. Caught between the physical sensations making him grind back against Bucky's fingers in an attempt to get them deeper and the feelings shuddering over the bond, he almost missed it when Tony's hand joined Bucky's.

It sent even more lust surging over their bond, and finally made something, some last bit of restraint, in Steve snap. Knowing Bucky would find a way to move with him -- he always had, before -- Steve pushed himself up onto his elbows and rolled himself onto his stomach. 

Bucky's fingers pulled away at the first sign that Steve wanted more, but were back the moment he was settled again, pressing back in as Bucky kissed up his spine between his shoulder blades to bite at the nape of his neck.

Steve took a moment to enjoy the pressure Bucky was exerting, then turned his attention to Tony, who was definitely up for more. 

Steve settled himself between Tony's legs, resting his elbows on the mattress to either side of Tony's hips and his hands on Tony's sides. He let his eyes slip closed when Bucky's fingers drove deep and hit that point that always made him feel like he'd been set aflame. Tony's good hand buried itself in Steve's hair again, and he scratched gently at Steve's scalp with his strong fingers and blunt fingernails. Steve ground his hips down against the mattress and back against Bucky's hand. 

"Look at him," Tony said, a tone of wonder in his voice, "being so shameless for us."

"You're not so bad yourself," Bucky replied, and Steve pushed himself up on his elbows again hearing those words.

"Bucky," he managed to rasp out, his voice gone totally hoarse with how aroused he was, "do it, I need more."

Tony chuckled at him, and Steve couldn't have that. He put a stop to the sound, wrapping his lips around Tony's cock and groaning as the taste seemed to fill his whole mouth and coat his throat. Tony's lust flooded over him along with the taste and it sent a sharp shudder through Steve.

"Bucky," Tony managed to grit out between his teeth, "give him what he wants. Unless you think we can get a third round out of him."

A pair of hands, one hard and metallic and the other warm muscle and bone, wrapped around Steve's hips and pulled him to his knees. Steve didn't mind; that put him at a better angle to swallow Tony down properly, and Bucky at just the right angle to finally put more than just his fingers deep inside him.

Bucky thrust in carefully and stopped moving once he was fully seated, as Steve pinned Tony's arms to the mattress again and took him deeper in his mouth. He wasn't going to last long, though, and he knew it. Just knowing that he was being thoroughly taken by both his lovers at once was sending him spiraling upward toward the precipice he wasn't sure he wanted to hit, for all that he always enjoyed it when he did.

Letting go of Tony's uninjured arm again, Steve groped around the bed for the bottle of lube they'd forgotten about, and poured some out, one-handed, not caring a whit that he was making a mess. Once he was sure his fingers were slick, he brought them down to open Tony up, sliding in first one, then two fingers, without giving Tony much of a chance to adjust in between. They'd done that before, and Steve knew how far he could push his lover.

Bucky chose that moment to start moving, and Steve moaned around the hard cock in his mouth. Tony swore, and his hand clamped down at the nape of Steve's neck, latching on like a lamprey but not trying to dictate Steve's movements. It felt more like Tony was making a bid to hold onto his own control.

"That's it, Steve," Bucky praised him, thrusting himself home harder, "make him come, so that I can make you scream properly."

It was like tripping a switch. Something in the words set Tony off, and Steve nearly choked on Tony's come.

He didn't have much time to enjoy it, though. Bucky took that as his cue to thrust all the way in, pull Steve off Tony, and haul him upright. Steve's hands went around behind him to wrap around Bucky's hips for leverage, and Bucky ground up against him, the position letting him thrust deep. "Missed you," he muttered for only Steve to hear, "missed this. Love you."

And that was it; Steve was done. After all the build up, his orgasm was enough make every muscle seize, and he felt Bucky's movements stutter to a stop as he buried himself deep and rode out the spasms running through his own body. Bucky's head fell to his shoulder as Steve started to drift down, feeling disconnected and distant.


	20. Chapter 20

When Steve woke again what felt like an instant later, he could tell several hours had passed. He had to take a few seconds to work out what felt different.

There were a few things. His bond with Bucky was stronger again, now that Bucky wasn't trying to block it, and most of what he felt from his lover was hunger. It didn't really make much of a mark on Steve's still-sluggish movements, mental and physical. Tony, on the other hand, was still a warm weight in his arms and against his chest, right where he belonged, and sleeping. For once. 

Steve was careful not to move and wake him, while he reached out to Bucky through the bond. What he got back was more hunger pangs and a sense of 'back soon'.

Amused, Steve left him to it, assuming that Bucky knew what to do with a human kitchen, and closed his eyes. He was enjoying the moment of quiet.

A few minutes later, though, the bond started filling with what took Steve a moment to identify as unease, and Tony stirred with a groan. The unease wasn't coming from him, though. Tony mostly felt groggy and confused. "Bucky?" he asked blearily.

"In the galley," Steve replied, and then winced when the unease intensified enough to send a pang of nausea through him, "guess I'd better go see what's wrong."

"Put on pants, then, and hand me mine." Tony demanded, scrubbing at his face with his good hand.

Steve did him one better, and hastily grabbed for a towel to moisten at the sink in Tony's small en suite bathroom. He tossed it to Tony to clean himself up with and then followed it with the requested pants before pulling on his own.

As he buttoned them up and reached for his shirt, Bucky seemed to physically flinch, and that was it. Steve needed to know. Without another word, he was out the door and down the hallway. Tony swore, and followed, still awkwardly working at the buttons of his shirt as he stumbled down the corridor.

"-- what you think you're doing!" As Steve neared the kitchen, he heard Pepper, her voice hard and tone nearly a hiss, apparently trying to pull answers out of Bucky that he felt uncomfortable giving. "If you mess up what they--"

Steve cleared his throat, and Pepper looked up, not one ounce of guilt to be seen. "Steve."

Bucky seemed to go limp where he'd pressed himself against the wall, his skin pale. Tony pushed past Steve, who let him into the galley, but didn't break eye contact with Pepper.

After a long awkward pause, Bucky managed to say, "I'm alright."

Tony straightened, keeping on hand on Bucky's shoulder, and physically interposed himself between Bucky and Pepper. "Good," he told Bucky. "If not, there would have been hell to pay, after the effort we put into getting you out of there."

"Speaking of which," Pepper replied, "you still owe us a story."

"I'm not saying a word until Bucky's eaten, and not looking like he's about to throw himself overboard to get away from what I can only assume was an interrogation." Tony sounded angry. "I don't appreciate my friends giving my other friends the third degree for no damned reason."

The comment got Tony a glare from her, and Steve picked that moment to slip in behind Tony to check up on their third.

Pepper sucked in a breath. "Yeah? Well, from here it looks a lot like he showed up out of nowhere and tried to break up the best thing you've got going for you. I'm not about to stand back and just let that happen. Friend or not." 

"I can fight my own battles, thanks," Tony retorted. "Steve, would you get him a sandwich or something?" Turning back to Pepper, he added, "if I tell you what happened, will you leave him alone?"

"If it's convincing enough." Pepper retorted. "This had better be good."

Steve shook off the lingering unease and sour fear and put together the requested sandwich. Well, he made three, because Tony needed to eat, too, and he wanted one for himself. Steve stepped back over to Bucky and wrapped an arm around his friend's waist, before holding one sandwich out to Bucky as he did.

Bucky ignored the sandwich for a moment, turning into the touch and wrapping his arms around Steve for a moment instead, taking comfort he seemed to need.

"Hey," Steve put the sandwich back on the plate so he had a hand free, and ran it up and down Bucky's back, palm open. "It's alright. They don't know the whole story," he said quietly. "They'll come around."

Tony's expression went acid. "They'd better. Come on, if we're going to do this, we're doing it where Rhodey and Jarvis can hear so that we don't have to go through this three times."

Thankfully, the walk up to the bridge, where Jarvis and Rhodey were piloting the airship, was a short one. When Tony stomped in, looking like he bore stormclouds on his brow, they exchanged a look that said they knew they'd been found out. They were about as repentant as Pepper, though.

"Well, Potts," Jarvis prompted, eyeing the three of them and Pepper.

Pepper shrugged, and stepped over to stand beside Rhodey. "I didn't have a chance to finish, but I think he got the idea."

Tony scowled darkly. "There had better not be a next time."

"We'll see." Pepper shot back, clearly still irritated by Tony's protectiveness over Bucky.

Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Just tell us what the hell happened down there. Pepper, let him talk."

Jarvis locked in the airship's heading and joined them, giving Tony his full attention since they were out over open ocean for the time being and the winds were behaving as the charts said they should.

Watching the three of his old friends for a long moment, Tony gave off a skeptical feeling so strong Steve almost thought he could taste it. "Tony," he put in, "Just tell the story, or we'll be here all morning."

"We might anyway," Bucky grumbled, apparently feeling more himself again.

Jarvis snorted. "Well, old bird? Enlighten us. Something tells me this will be a doozy."


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this chapter we're back to Tony's POV. That will remain the case through to the end of the fic.

Luckily for his sanity, after he'd told Pepper, Rhodey and Jarvis the story, things had quieted down. The three of his old friends had all been quite skeptical, but seeing the Pearl in Tony's hands had apparently been proof enough for Rhodey. "Even if that thing isn't magical," he'd joked when he'd seen it, "you've got what you came for, boss."

It was strange to hold the Pearl and feel nothing from it. Up until now every time he'd had it in his hands, it had felt... inhabited. Conscious. But now it was more like a dead ball of nacre. He kept his mouth shut about that, for the moment.

"Well, let's see it," Pepper demanded. She'd picked it up and turned it this way and that, as though looking for some kind of trigger or activation mechanism. "How does it work?" she asked eventually.

"Haven't worked that out yet," Tony admitted, as he took it back and put it back in the leather pouch he'd kept it in thus far. "Maybe it only lasts for a certain amount of time before it needs a recharge in that temple."

Steve snorted. "Then it'll never work again. That temple's destroyed."

Bucky stayed silent, apparently not inclined to draw attention to himself, and watched Pepper warily. That was a bridge that looked like it might need some mending, first and second impressions being what they were. Tony bit back a few more scathing comments, seeing the way Steve was very deliberately and very protectively drawing the attention Bucky was avoiding.

"All the more reason not to mention anything about magic when we get back to New York. I can hide a giant pearl in my safety deposit box, or whatever." Tony turned toward the bridge door, then grabbed Bucky's hand and pulled him towards it. "But you, Bucky, you need a shower and so do I. Come on."

Steve rolled his eyes at them -- Tony didn't even need to see him to know that -- and stayed behind to make his own stance on Bucky's presence known. 

Bucky relaxed the moment they were out of the room, and Tony grinned. "If you want," he offered, not even looking at Bucky, "we can share that shower."

He got a huff in response. "Are you _trying_ to get me in more trouble?"

"Trying to make a point," Tony shot back. "If you think that little bit of opposition is enough to stop me, you clearly have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Well, I only met you a day ago," Bucky pointed out, reasonably.

"Pah," Tony scoffed and shoved open the door of the shared shower, chivvied Bucky in, then locked it behind them. "You clearly knew who I was even before then. Either someone briefed you or you figured it out on your own."

The locked door wouldn't stop someone determined, but it was enough of a barrier to let Bucky relax a bit further. "That's not nearly the same thing," he replied mildly. "You know that as well as I do."

Tony shrugged. "I suppose that's fair. Now, get in the shower and get clean." 

He saw Bucky hesitate and wondered what was causing the trepidation.

"Got no other clothes." 

"Well if that's all it is," Tony eyed Bucky, sizing him up as he grabbed a bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap to hand to him. "I'll get you a spare pair of pants and a shirt. They'll probably be a little small, but Steve's things will fall right off you, and so will Rhodey's or Jarvis'."

"I'll cope." Bucky stepped under the showerhead and turned on the spray without bothering to strip down, turning his face up into the water with an expression of relief.

Tony watched him for a moment before forcing himself to get the promised clothes, as well as a spare set for himself. He closed the door carefully after himself and jumped when he spotted Steve, leaning against the wall opposite.

"You get things settled?" He asked after a beat.

Steve nodded. "For now. Thought you were going to shower."

"In a minute. I'll need something to wear afterward, and so will Bucky."

"Go," Steve told him. "I'm going to get to know this wall."

Tony laughed at his lover and let the wash of relief at having backup wipe most of the remaining tension out of his muscles. That was a turn of phrase Steve had to have learned from him. "Right. Back in a jiffy."

Tony let himself fall back into his thoughts as he made the short walk back to his room and started rummaging through his things. Pepper, Rhodey, and Jarvis normally played that role, defending him -- and Steve, as well, once they'd accepted him. It was a bit ironic that Steve was helping him defend Bucky from his usual defenders, yes, but Tony wasn't about to let that turn into enough hostility to send Bucky running. Not when he'd seen just how much it meant to Steve to have the guy around. And it helped that Tony liked him, besides.

He wasn't totally convinced that adding Bucky into their relationship would work out, long term. Not yet, anyway. But he was enjoying it enough to see how events played out. There was also the factor to consider that he did, Tony admitted to himself with a half smile, also want to see Steve take a shifted Bucky's octopus arms. That sounded blazingly hot.

He met no one as he hurried back down the corridors toward the showers, and was rather glad of that fact.

Steve was still leaning against the wall opposite the showers door and looking as innocent as someone with his build could, while standing guard in possibly the most obvious way possible. Tony wanted to laugh. Biting at his lip, he stepped up to Steve and brought his free hand up to tangle in Steve's hair. It got him a pair of big warm hands on his hips, a pleased rumble, and a kiss. 

"I'm fine," Steve told him after a beat, clearly picking up on at least a little bit of his worrying, "go calm Bucky down."

Tony nodded. "Don't go anywhere."

"I don't intend to." Steve told him with the solid certainty of bedrock underlying his voice.

"Good."

If this was going to stand a chance of working, they'd have to make sure Bucky was stable for the next couple of days.


	22. Chapter 22

Their arrival back in New York was anticlimactic after the drama of the first hours of the trip there. Mooring the airship and unloading the armours for transport back to the mansion went off without a hitch, and somehow no one noticed that they'd come back with one more person than they'd left with. Tony was inclined to blame that on Steve's way of putting himself in the spotlight and Bucky fading into the background -- sometimes in a very literal manner -- anytime someone not on their crew came near them. Not that Tony was at all opposed to keeping this quiet. Not in the least.

He had to repeatedly refuse offers to see to his gunshot injury or have him driven to the hospital to have it seen to. Only his demonstration that he had already been patched up, in the form of a set of bandages and a sling improvised out of his spare belt, was enough to get them off the airfield without an escort of medical professionals. Jarvis' calm and immovable insistence that he knew as much as any emergency responder helped a lot with that. He did ask for a proper sling, though, which made the airfield staff feel better, and Tony's shoulder hurt less. He hadn't even noticed it was bothering him.

Pepper and Rhodey made use of the time Tony and Jarvis spent arguing with the airfield staff to get Tony's car out of the motor pool, and were waiting inside it with the engine idling when they finally managed to free themselves of said staff's attempts to be helpful.

The moment Steve was inside, Bucky seemed to appear next to him out of thin air. Jarvis wedged himself in beside Rhodey in the front, and Tony joined his lovers in the bench seat in the back.

Driving to the mansion was a short, silent affair, but Tony was still glad when it ended. He'd banged his arm against the car door several times and it ached, bone-deep, in a way that made him clench his teeth and feel uncomfortably warm. Thankfully, when the car rolled gently to a stop, Steve jumped out and made a beeline for the front door. On the other hand, that had the side effect of leaving Bucky to manhandle Tony.

Tony protested. "Hey! What are you-- Bucky! I can walk! For crying out lou-- put me down!"

Pepper raised an eyebrow at the scene, and Rhodey laughed. Tony spared a moment to be thankful the newsmen hadn't realised he was back in town yet, so there would be no photos of this little scene.

Bucky, ignoring every word he said, carried Tony into the mansion and followed Steve through the hallways and up the stairs to settle Tony in his room. Well. His and Steve's. Presumably soon to be his and Steve's and Bucky's. Assuming he didn't yell at the two idiots about this little display of ... whatever it was.

"Stop scowling," Steve told him. "You can worry about whatever it is tomorrow. Take the afternoon and rest."

Bucky nodded, stripping off Tony's boots and socks, and then his own. "Take that sling off," he prompted as he reached for the buttons of Tony's shirt and started undoing them.

Tony didn't move. "It's way too early to be in bed," he told them instead, doing his best to ignore the cold trickle of concern and worry that seemed to travel slowly down the side of his neck like a drop of ice water, "and I need to make up a place to keep the Pearl safe."

"You can do that after you've rested." Steve started stripping down, himself, and Tony watched him in a mix of appreciation and wariness.

Bucky picked that moment to settle on the mattress behind him, making Tony jump. He wrapped himself around Tony, appropriately like a clingy octopus, and pulled Tony down into a supine position on the mattress. When Bucky's bare skin touched his, all of the mingled worry and relief and stress and uncertainty of following Tony home, to New York of all places, poured through him and Tony shivered.

He always had been a risk-taker, and so had Bucky, really. But right now, in this moment, what Bucky needed wasn't a risk to take, but something to hold to when everything else was changing rapidly around him.

"Bucky?" Tony couldn't help but reach out with his good hand, smoothing it over Bucky's long hair and down his back. "You alright?"

"'M fine."

"You're such a terrible liar," Steve scoffed, "but we like you anyway." 

Acknowledging the truth of that, and Bucky's desire to have him around, Tony swallowed hard. "I guess you have a point," he grumbled, giving in. "And, anyway, being stuck in bed is less terrible when you two are around."

Bucky clung to him tighter for a moment, and Tony closed his eyes. Might as well try to relax and get some rest while he was here.

When he blinked his eyes open again, what felt like a few seconds later, the room was dark and night had fallen. At some point, Bucky had released him and latched onto Steve instead, and that was a visual Tony paused to enjoy for a few seconds. Having Steve around was turning him into a sap, he decided. There was no other explanation for the way the sight of his two lovers wrapped around one another made him go all gooey.

Shaking his head at his own thoughts, he stretched carefully and dressed. He wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore, now, and lying in bed with nothing to do but stare at his ceiling was not Tony's idea of fun. Without bothering to button up his shirt, he pulled on the sling and grabbed for his belt and the pouch that held the Pearl. It was high time he put the thing in a safe place.

Entering his workshop was like coming home, in a very real sense, even within the mansion. The heavy door shut behind him with a quiet thunk under its own weight, and the room felt like the well-insulated workspace it was. Hoping that his lovers would sleep a while longer so that he wouldn't have to endure more mother henning after he worked out where and how to hide the Pearl, Tony prepared himself to get to work.

It had been a while since he'd tried to disguise anything, and he'd need to think.


	23. Chapter 23

"Well, now, let's see." Tony settled himself on his chair, then carefully used his good hand to pick up the leather pouch he'd been storing the Pearl in and upended it over his main workbench. The Pearl rolled out onto the table, bouncing twice on the hard wooden surface before he caught it and it settled in his palm.

He held it up, inspecting it against the backdrop of his overflowing bookshelves. Its surface was smoother than he remembered, though there were a few uneven places that felt like they had been chips at one point and since been polished smooth by the water.

As it had before on the airship, the Pearl felt like nothing more than dead nacre, and that fact fell somewhere between intriguing and disappointing. The hints he'd gotten from Steve and Bucky that this thing might finally signify the end of his quest to fix his heart had been enough to send his hopes skyrocketing, but the lack of a definitive proof that it had already healed him had left him on edge, wondering.

Now, with the Pearl unresponsive, Tony found himself plummeting back down to earth again. If it hadn't healed him, he'd be stuck. Bucky seemed to think that Tony would pick up his and Steve's regenerative abilities, and that those would be enough to let him remove the repulsor pump. Tony wasn't so sure.

Yes, he acknowledged, he had picked up the ability to shift, and now could also talk to Steve, apparently thanks to the Pearl. But he hadn't seen any indication that he was healing faster.

His arm protested when he sighed and let himself slump forward, letting his forehead press against the Pearl. The sudden sharp pain that shot through him because he hadn't taken his injury into account made him swear, and jerked a tear free of his eye. Tony didn't move for a long moment, letting himself catch his breath and screwing his eyes shut. He felt the single tear cling to his lashes and then fall.

A beat later, a spark of alien emotion speared through him, feeling similar to what he had with Steve when they opened up their bond fully, and he straightened in his seat, surprised. A glance at the Pearl revealed that there was a drop of moisture slowly creeping down its side.

"Well, I'll be." 

Excited again, and feeling a bit like a kid at Christmas, Tony set the Pearl down on his workbench and stood to ransack his workshop for a large bowl, some salt, and the jug of water he knew Jarvis kept filled for him.

It took him a couple of minutes, and he didn't find the bowl he wanted. But he managed to dump enough salt into the jug of water that he could submerge the Pearl, instead. The moment he did, it burst over his awareness like water flooding a tide pool in a spiraling rush of power and emotion.

Tony shuddered under the force of it, and tried not to tense up and hurt his arm again.

As he did, he got an impression of curiosity and something that roughly seemed to translate as 'something-different-about-you.' On the whole, the experience this time was more like a sharing than losing control to some other consciousness. Tony could feel it prodding at him, in a very metaphysical sort of way. Apparently it had never encountered mer-folk, and much less a hybrid like Tony.

When it found the injury to his arm and the bruising on his chest -- the lingering aftereffects of the bullets that had hit his torso and been stopped by the armour Bucky had provided and Steve had crammed him into -- that had risen up during the trip home to New York, a surge of what felt a lot like dismay and concern shot through Tony, making him clench his teeth against his automatic protest. He hadn't had a lot of choice at the time, thanks. And how on earth did a jewel feel human emotions anyway? Tony rather suspected that it didn't, and that his mind was just assigning signifiers to what he felt that he could understand. It was rather a moot point, though.

While he'd thought things over, the Pearl had taken action. In his distraction, Tony had barely noticed, either, but the satisfaction he felt from the Pearl once it had done what it wanted definitely got his attention.

He held it up and eyed it warily. "Just what did you do? Hm?"

The satisfaction turned smug and Tony realised with a jolt that his arm was no longer sending spikes of pain through him with every breath he took. Caught somewhere between fear and elation, Tony stared down at the Pearl and tried not to let his emotions get the better of him. It seemed he was correct about the Pearl's power to heal. That left him wondering about Bucky's claim that it had fixed his heart, and in the wake of that thought he realised that his heart was racing and that it didn't hurt the way it had for so many years.

That, of course, was was the moment his workshop door slammed open and his lovers burst in.

"Tony," Bucky started, "what are you--"

The Pearl seemed to light up, and Bucky choked on his words, his knees going out from under him. Steve, who'd been about to say something himself, made a startled sound and hastily caught Bucky around the waist. Tony, for his part, tried in vain to stop whatever was happening. The Pearl was very insistent, and Tony got the impression that it stubbornly wanted to finish something it had started.

Bucky let Steve support him, and went very, very still, caught between wariness and true fear. Tony could feel it shuddering through their bond, even over whatever the Pearl was doing to try to soothe them both. He tried again to stop the Pearl from continuing, concern for Bucky taking precedence over anything else, but the Pearl insisted on keeping control, refusing to let him interfere. He got a sense of 'not-now-dangerous,' that mollified him a little.

But only a little.

Whatever was happening, it was making Bucky's end of the bond go haywire. Tony was dimly getting flashes of images, sounds, touches, and any number of other sense memories, and he knew it had to be exponentially worse for Steve, who was holding up Bucky and doing his best to ride out Bucky's twitching and the pained sounds he was making.

When the Pearl was through, it went quiet again, releasing most of its hold on Tony, and Bucky fainted dead away in Steve's arms.

"Bucky?" Steve sounded exhausted and about to panic. "Bucky!"

Tony hastily stuffed the Pearl back into the pouch, feeling the sensation of the weird sharing fade away, and stumbled over to them. "Steve? Shit. Is he alright?"

When Tony put his hand over Steve's, which was rucking up Bucky's shirt and pressed tightly to the bare skin of Bucky's chest, he reeled from the intensity of whatever tangled mess of emotions Steve was feeling and jerked his hand back with a startled hiss of sound.

"This sure isn't good," he grumbled. Someone had to take charge, and Steve definitely wasn't it. "Steve, hey." Tony steeled himself against the emotional storm he knew would hit him again and put his hands against Steve's jaw, tilting Steve's head up towards him, forcibly redirecting Steve's attention. "Come on. We're all going back to bed."

"But--"

Tony firmed his voice a bit more, as best he could. "Steve. You need to bring him to bed and let him rest."

It was heart wrenching to see his usually calm and confident lover looking so lost. 

When Steve didn't move for a long moment, Tony sighed and reached down to wrap his hands around Bucky's waist. Steve made a strangled sound and tried to stop him, all his protective instincts fully aroused. Then abruptly brought himself up short when he realised Tony was moving easily and not in pain. "Tony," he managed, a sort of awe and wonder in his eyes, "what happened?"

Tony huffed at him. "The Pearl decided I shouldn't be injured. I'm pretty sure that bullet hole won't even scar. Now. Come on. On your feet."

Bucky made a quiet pained sound when they stood, but didn't wake.

Once they'd tucked Bucky into the bed, Steve pulled Tony close, plastering the lengths of their bodies together, and held him there for what felt like a long time as they stood beside the bed. Tony let him, feeling strong familiar hands slide up his back under his still-unbuttoned shirt and knowing Steve was taking comfort from the touch. When Bucky whined and groped around the bed, clearly looking for them, he gently peeled Steve away from him, and pushed until he sat down on the bed. Bucky immediately latched onto him, and Tony had to help Steve with his pants. Not that that was much of a hardship.

Before he could take it into his head to leave again, though, Steve's hand wrapped around his wrist. "I don't think so. On the bed."

Steve sounded much more like himself, so Tony gave in. He didn't stand much of a chance against a determined Steve on the best of days, and this day had been an exhausting one. "Fine," he grumbled, knowing Steve would see right through the pretense, "but you're not acting clingy tomorrow. I won't allow it."


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus we come to the end of this installment in the series. I currently have no plans to continue it, but that may well change. I don't know yet.
> 
> I want to say, too, that I'm beyond pleased by the response to this fic. I was not expecting to have so many of you get so hooked, and I had a blast chatting with y'all in the comments.

He hadn't registered the transition from wakefulness to sleep, but when two pairs of arms tightened around him, Tony roused and yawned. "What time's it?"

Steve laughed at him, nosing at the skin at the nape of his neck. "The sun's not up yet."

Tony made a face. "Why are you awake, then?"

Bucky chose that moment to lick at the skin of his throat, making Tony jump. "Dreamed I woke up, and you were gone again," he said. "Couldn't close my eyes after that."

Steve set his teeth in the skin within reach, making Tony squirm. When he let go of the bite again, he added, "Buck's fussing woke me up. Decided I didn't feel like staring at my eyelids."

"So you stared at me instead?" Tony asked, knowing he sounded a bit breathless already, just from the jolts these slight touches were sending through him.

"And why not?" Bucky grinned at him as he let himself fall onto his back on the mattress, limbs a loose sprawl. "You make a nice sight, tangled up in Steve like that."

"I took you for someone who prefers to participate more actively than that," Tony returned.

Steve untangled them without a word, then, and handed him off to Bucky in a move that Tony knew took a hell of a lot of upper body strength. Steve had basically lifted him up something like half a meter and then leaned over to set him down on Bucky's chest so that they ended up nose-to-nose.

Tony looked back at him as Bucky's arms went around his waist. "Going somewhere, Steve?"

Bucky leaned in and set his teeth firmly in the curve of muscle connecting neck and shoulder, using his lips and tongue to try to raise a nice bruise on the spot, as well.

The sensation made Tony groan, very effectively distracted by the sparks of arousal starting to sing all along his nerves. His hands flew up of their own volition to bury themselves in Bucky's hair. "Bucky! Good Christ."

With a satisfied hum, Bucky decided he was content with what he'd wrought and lifted his head to kiss up the side of Tony's neck. Tony used his hold to pull Bucky into a proper kiss, deepening it immediately and holding Bucky in place until he was sure he'd be tasting Bucky for hours. 

Steve spoke up, then, drawing Tony's attention. "Come on, Buck. Bath's ready."

It was one of the few extravagances of his residence that Tony very much approved of, and always had. He'd used it to soak away his travel weariness and injuries after his adventures right from the start, and after he'd brought Steve home, it had seen even more use. For a number of reasons.

Steve had taken to lounging in it with his scales on anytime he didn't feel like staying in his human form, enjoying the fact that it was deep enough and long enough to accommodate all of him. Tony had bought him a variety of different bath salts, and he knew they got used frequently, though the plain unscented one was Steve's favourite.

Now it appeared things were going to go one step farther. And Tony couldn't help but remember Steve's comment about sex and Bucky's shifted form from their fantastic night aboard the airship. He pushed himself up on his elbows and eyed Bucky warily. "The bath, Steve?" He inquired mildly.

Bucky didn't bother replying verbally. Instead, he set Tony on his ass on the mattress and sat him up, rolling to his knees to kneel behind Tony. Steve reached down and hauled Tony to his feet, replying, "Is there a problem?"

Disappearing into the bathroom, Bucky stripped off the pants he'd worn to sleep in and tossed them back over his shoulder and out into the bedroom to land on the floor at Tony's feet. "If there is, I'll be disappointed. This sounded like a great idea to me," he put in.

Tony shook his head and surrendered. The thing was, he couldn't truthfully say he wasn't intrigued by the idea, himself. "Guess we can't have that," he quipped back, and started working his shirt off, moving carefully so as not to re-injure himself if whatever the Pearl had done wasn't complete. His shirt joined Bucky's pants on the floor under a minute later. Steve grinned at him and 'helped' him with his pants before he stripped off his own clothes.

By the time they were both naked, Bucky had settled himself in the large tub with a look of bliss on his face. "You were totally right, Steve. This feels amazing."

Steve laughed at him, the sound indulgent and almost gentle. "It's almost as good as real sea water, if you want to shift or need a break from being on legs."

"Yeah?" Bucky leered at them. "And if I wanted you to join me in here?"

Tony considered that. "We could fit," he said, "but there wouldn't be a whole lot of room left over."

"So get in," Steve told him, giving him a nudge towards the rim of the large tub, before grabbing for the lube and following.

It felt like no time at all passed between that moment and the one in which Tony found himself pinned between his lovers' bodies again. "Hmm, now this seems promising," he told Bucky. "What did you have in mind, exactly."

"Well, I liked Steve's suggestion, but if you have other ideas, I'd love to hear 'em." Bucky smirked at him, and Tony shuddered at the sudden sensation of octopus arms against his bare skin. 

The mental image sent a shiver down Tony's spine and he let his head fall to rest on the front of Bucky's shoulder. "Not right now, but I'll let you know," he replied. 

"How adventurous're you feeling?" Steve asked him.

Tony sniffed at him and tweaked at the tip of the suckered arm that was creeping up his left leg, getting a full-body twitch out of Bucky. "Maybe not tonight. Let me get used to the idea."

Setting his nose against the skin at the nape of Tony's neck, Steve took a deep breath. "I suppose that's fair."

Bucky sniffed at Steve. _\-- Took you a few tries, too, you faker, --_ he muttered as he slid under the bath's surface so he could breathe properly, and Tony was surprised to find that he could understand the words despite the way that sound only poorly transferred from water to air.

The idea made Tony snicker. "That so. Well, I guess you know what you're doing, then."

His laughter cut off abruptly in a groan when Steve's hands slid down his sides to his ass in revenge and spread his cheeks wide so that Steve could grind his cock against the sensitive skin around his hole. Bucky grinned and brought one suckered arm up to latch onto Steve's wrist, pulling a shudder out of Steve that Tony felt over their bond as well as against his skin.

_\-- You could say that, --_ Bucky said, reaching up with another arm to take hold of Steve's other wrist with more of his suckers. Two more suckered arms slid against Tony's legs as they wrapped firmly around Steve's thighs. 

Steve made a high keening sound. "Come on, Buck, give it to me."

_\-- I don't think so, --_ Bucky shot back. _\-- First you're going to open up Tony and get inside, and then I'll do the same to you. --_

Tony nodded, suddenly feeling just how aroused he was, and taking the chance to rub himself against Steve, who was mostly pinned in place by Bucky's hold on him. "Steve, do it. I know you grabbed the lube. I want you deep in me."

Without a word, Steve started working him open, and Tony let his head fall back down until his chin nearly touched his chest, biting his lip. Bucky's hands, metal and flesh alike, wandered, exploring and teasing. The feeling of two pairs of hands was still new enough to be bewildering, but the feelings singing across the bond between them were intoxicating in their intensity. 

_\-- You should see his face right now, Tony, --_ Bucky informed him as a metal hand tweaked at his nipple. _\-- He looks like he would come all over your skin if I let him. --_

Steve made a choked sound. "Buck," he managed to say, sounding like he couldn't catch his breath, "that's not helping."

_\-- I'm having to hold him back, --_ Bucky went on, one of his free arms trailing up the inside of Tony's thigh, teasingly. The suckers briefly latched onto the sensitive skin, hard, before letting go, and Tony groaned, sure he would have a few small bruises there as a souvenir of this encounter.

The feeling got Tony moving again, and he raised an eyebrow at Bucky. "Let's say I believe you," he replied, his hands sliding down Bucky's sides. "What happens if you let him go so he can get inside me and he goes off before he can?"

The skin under his hands was softer and and warmer than Steve's was when he was shifted, the absence of any scales making all the difference. It was a strange feeling nonetheless, with the way the texture seemed to change from moment to moment, as Bucky reacted to the sensations and emotions he was getting from both of them.

Bucky gave him the dirtiest smirk once he'd processed the question. _\-- Well I could just simply not let go, --_ he offered. _\-- Wrap my arm all the way around him from root to tip and keep it there while he slides inside you. --_

Steve's breath hitched. "Also not helping," he gritted out between his teeth as he added a second finger and pushed them deep.

"Yes! More," Tony encouraged Steve as his back arched, and used his touches to Bucky's skin as an outlet, continuing to explore as he tried to work out just how he felt about the idea of having both of them inside him at the same time like that. The thought was more appealing than he'd expected.

Steve made another high keening sound, and added a third finger, hastily working him open.

Bucky clearly approved, judging by the way he squirmed and rubbed himself against Tony. _\-- Give it to him, Steve, --_ he demanded, _\-- put your lovely cock in him and don't move. --_

Tony felt a deep tug in his gut and his breath caught. When Steve finally pushed in -- sans Bucky -- Tony bit his lip to hold back the words the threatened to escape him.

_\-- How's that feel, Tony? --_ Bucky's hands slid down to tease at the skin of his hole, where he and Steve were so intimately joined. It made Tony tense, and Steve swear.

"Feels nice," he managed to say, groping after coherent thought and only halfway succeeding in catching it.

Steve's hands joined Bucky's again, back to roaming over Tony's skin, sending waves of pleasant goosebumps over Tony's back and arms. Far more startling was feeling the flicker of touch against his skin as another of Bucky's suckered arms wrapped around the base of Steve's cock. It was followed almost immediately by a strong hand wrapping around his own cock, and Tony couldn't stop the helpless shout that the touch tore free.

_\-- That's it, --_ Bucky grinned at him. _\-- Let go. Come on Steve's cock, and let us tease a second round out of you. --_

"Bucky," Steve whined, an almost pained note in his voice, as his hands tightened around Tony's hips. "Bucky, come on."

Tony only barely felt the shallow twitches of Steve's hips that Bucky was allowing, but the distraction of the hand on his cock and the kiss Bucky pulled him in for were more than enough to make up the difference.

The way Steve was shaking with the need to take him was hot as anything, and the feelings of frustrated want that were echoing over their bond were enough to send Tony spiraling higher and higher.

He distantly heard the snap as the little bottle of lube opened again, and could only guess at what that meant. Steve's hands were occupied, and so were Bucky's. Steve's wordless groan was more than enough answer, and Tony couldn't help the way he jerked in their hold at the realisation that Bucky had lubed up his arms and started working them into Steve.

"Bucky, oh sweet Christ! Steve!" The knowledge, combined with the ardent touches Bucky was bestowing on him, was enough to shove him over the knife's edge and he came, feeling like a star flared behind his eyes.

Steve gasped and drew a stuttering breath, his head bowing and his whole body curling around Tony's. Tony let himself slump forward, supported by Steve's arms and Bucky's chest, his breath coming hard and fast. 

The sight made Bucky smile. _\-- Mmm, yes, --_ he purred, sounding very pleased with himself and doing something that made Steve twitch inside him. _\-- That was lovely to watch. --_

"Sure, great," Tony managed to say, dazed, "I'll need a minute."

_\-- Steve, --_ Bucky said, ignoring the comment, _\-- help me get him hard again. --_

Moving slowly, a little gingerly, Steve straightened. "Might take a few minutes," he said, taking a deep breath.

He followed directions, though, and started teasing any patch of skin he could reach that he knew was sensitive, starting by mouthing at the one behind Tony's right ear and moving down to the nape of his neck, then switching to his hands when he decided to go farther afield.

Bucky followed suit, working his way down Tony's neck to his chest, and lingering anywhere he got a reaction. He quickly found the sensitive spot along Tony's ribs and took advantage of it.

Tony couldn't do much more than squirm under the touches, unable to get free and not really wanting to, either. The hard cock inside him still felt nice, and he did want to see where this went. The lust and want still filling their bond was enough to make Tony want more, as well, for all that he knew he wouldn't be ready to follow through on the desire for a while.

Of course, just to make things more of a tease, Steve was definitely very much enjoying having Bucky's suckered arms inside him, and doing his best not to bite through his lip. It was making Tony mighty curious.

That was something to explore another night, he decided, and let his own hands roam, picking the thread back up that he'd lost a while ago and running his hands down Bucky's front until he reached the point where his lover's legs would have been, had he been in his human form. The feeling of slick smooth skin and suckers was distinctly foreign in a way Steve's scales had never been, for all that Tony had been expecting something of the sort.

What he wasn't expecting was the sound Bucky made, somewhere between a hitching gasp and a moan, and the reaction that got from Steve.

"Sensitive spot," he guessed, as Bucky renewed his assault on Tony's senses with his hands and mouth.

"Try a little farther back," Steve told him, using his hands to tease at the sensitive skin around Tony's hole and making Tony's hips twitch.

Bucky gasped and all but writhed when Tony followed the suggestion and found a pair of suckers at the base of each arm that felt different from the rest. They were larger and felt a bit like crushed velvet upholstery, and Bucky apparently loved being touched there.

Tony toyed with the rim of one of the suckers, and Bucky keened high in his throat. He did something to Steve that Tony suspected was intended to be revenge, because Steve jackknifed and made a choked sound that might have been Bucky's name. It drove Steve deeper into Tony and made him gasp for air as the first fizzles of true arousal started shooting up his spine again. 

_\-- Tony, --_ Bucky asked once he had gotten enough control back to speak, _\-- you ready for more? --_

He hesitated a moment, because, no, not yet, but he wanted.

Steve's hands, with Bucky's arms still wrapped around his wrists, followed a meandering path up his torso, seeming to leave behind a series of lingering tingles that felt like electricity burrowing under his skin.

Tony's back arched without his volition. "Steve!"

He felt a lot less raw and exposed than he had when Steve had teased him like this at Midway Island, and that was something of a relief. Getting his hands moving again, Tony continued exploring. He found a large patch of skin, then, that was different. Where the rest was smooth and slippery, this area, about the size of his palm, felt a bit like a callus. Bucky's breath caught and he jerked under Tony's hands at the touch. 

That time, the way Bucky's movements pushed Steve deep and held him there, didn't surprise Tony. But it was nonetheless enough to make him tense as the sparks of arousal he'd been feeling became a warm glow at the base of his spine and he felt himself start to harden properly again. The feeling punched a low groan out of him.

"Bucky," Steve gritted out, "I--" The words cut off abruptly, and Steve's cock twitched, where he was buried in Tony, hitting that one perfect spot.

Bucky's hands wrapped around his hips again, and he brought one suckered arm delicately up to trace along the lines of Tony's cock. Tony bit his lip hard as it slowly slid along him until it reached the head of his cock and the narrow tip wrapped around him. Bucky was using almost no pressure, and not taking advantage of his suckers. It was like a very narrow fingertip, exploring and learning his reactions to the touches.

Steve, whose chin had come to rest on Tony's shoulder as he tried futilely to catch his breath, lost it, seeing that. Watching Bucky touch Tony like that was apparently enough of a tease to finally break the last slender thread of Steve's self control. His hands slid around Tony's torso and took him firmly in hand with a deft touch refined over the course of the year they'd been together, fluidly jerking Tony until he couldn't keep still any longer. The movement peeled Bucky's arm loose, but Tony had no time to protest that.

Tony ground his hips back against Steve. Without the arm Bucky had wrapped tightly around Steve's cock, not letting him come, this little game would have been long over, and Tony knew it.

Bucky's expression went hungry, and he loosened his grip on Steve's legs.

Steve immediately took advantage of the freedom to start moving, slamming himself home hard enough to make the water in the bath slosh over the side of the tub.

Tony only distantly noticed that they were making a mess; he was focused on the way Steve felt inside him and Bucky's hands teased and tweaked his nipples. It didn't take long before the touches and the emotions battering at him over the bond overwhelmed him a second time, and he came with a quiet whine, spilling into the bath. 

Steve made a sound like he'd been gut-punched and stilled for a long moment.

Tony felt like all the energy had been wrung out of him, but pushed into the caress when Bucky's hands carded through his hair. Bucky carefully pulled Steve out of him, and Tony let Bucky manhandle him to sit with his back against the wall of the tub.

Steve, he noted through the haze of the afterglow, looked totally _wrecked_ , gasping for air, and flushed red down to his navel, eyes wide and dark. The dark color of the suckered arms holding him pinned contrasted almost harshly with Steve's pinked skin, but the effect was attractive and made the pale dots along Bucky's arms seem to almost glow with their own light. The two Steve had asked for aboard the airship were still buried deep inside him, and Tony stared, trying to memorise this moment.

The tableau held for a split second, and then Steve pounced in a way that Bucky couldn't -- or perhaps didn't want to -- hold him back from. Steve got his hand on Bucky's waist, without bothering to try to escape Bucky's hold, pulling Bucky in close, and settling himself nose to nose with Bucky. Tony could tell Steve was only holding himself above the level of the bathwater so he could speak.

"You want it this way?" Steve asked, his voice a rough, harsh rumble, as though he'd swallowed sand.

_\-- Get inside me, --_ Bucky replied, _\-- I need you, now. --_

Bucky was still holding Steve back from coming, and had wrapped his arm up Steve's length, holding tight with his suckers as it spiraled up to the tip of Steve's cock.

"Okay," Steve nodded, hoisting Bucky's hips up, and shifting until his own hips were tucked between the base of Bucky's arms. It left Bucky's neck pressed a bit awkwardly against the curved end of the tub, his lower body draped over Steve's lap. The move made the rest of Bucky's suckered arms curl around Steve, holding on for leverage and balance. The one around Steve's cock didn't move.

Steve didn't mind one bit, either. Tony could see the shiver that went through him. The pair of arms still inside Steve did something that made him throw his head back, and Tony desperately wanted to lean in and bite at the tendons and muscle that were thrown into such lovely relief by the movement.

When he came back down a little, Steve found the coherence to ask, "Ready?"

Bucky nodded, and almost before he finished the movement, Steve was slowly and gently thrusting his hips forward, Bucky's arm still coiled around him.

The penetration made Bucky writhe, and Tony was fairly sure Steve would have some new sucker bruises, himself, in an hour. _\-- Steve! Oh stars! I need more! --_

There was no holding back after that; Tony could tell just by the tenor of the feeling that was almost vibrating between them in the air. Their eyes locked, and then they were moving in perfect synch. The first thrusts were slow and careful, but the rhythm built quickly, fueled by the long tease Bucky had instigated.

When Bucky finally released his hold on Steve, the reaction was electric. Steve took a breath, then ducked under the water to set his teeth at the side of Bucky's neck. Bucky tensed hard and shouted something wordless as he came, the echoes of it making Tony groan in visceral reaction as it rushed over the bond. Steve all but convulsed in reaction when the sensation hit him, his movements juddering to a stop.

They didn't move for several long seconds.

Tony reached for Steve, running a hand through his lover's fine blond hair, and trying to get him to release Bucky so he could sit up and take a breath. It took Tony two tries before he succeeded.

Once he was mostly upright, Steve slumped against him.

Tony gave him a concerned look. "You alright, sweetheart?"

_\-- He's fine, --_ Bucky told him, sounding very smug and languid. _\-- Needs some sleep. --_

Tony let his amusement show, and dropped a kiss on Steve's forehead. "Good. We'd better shower off and get you both into bed, then. You're not looking much better."

"Stay?" Steve mumbled against his skin.

"Why not," he acceded. "Until breakfast."

It took them a few minutes to clean up and then a few more find the energy to shuffle back into the bed. Once they had, Tony found himself pinned quite effectively in the middle of a warm tangle of limbs.

Shaking his head at them, knowing they had to feel his affection clearly, Tony took a deep breath and settled in to get a little more rest.

When Jarvis knocked to call them to breakfast, they went without protest. Tony was hungry, and he suspected both his lovers were ravenous, after the energy they'd expended in the bath.

It took him another couple of days to come to a decision on what to do about the Pearl. In the end, for lack of better ideas, Tony ended up buying a large aquarium and putting the Pearl in it. Filling the aquarium with saltwater, and putting in a few tropical fish to keep it company was something of a joke on his part, but the Pearl seemed to appreciate it. As he watched the fish settle into the tank and explore, Tony smiled. 

Over the course of the next week, Tony noted with amusement, the fish randomly changed color and species several times.


End file.
